"
"But you know what a boy is, sir! Why should you want to learn me?"
"You might as well say that, because I have read one or two books, I
must know every book. To understand one boy helps to understand
another, but every boy is a new boy, different from every other boy,
and every one has to be understood."
"Yes--for sometimes Arkie won't hear me out, and I feel so cross
with her I should like to give her a good box on the ear. What king
was it, sir, that made the law that no lady, however disagreeable,
was to have her ears boxed? Do you think it a good law, sir?"
"It is good for you and me anyhow."
"And when Percy says, 'Oh, go away! don't bother,' I feel as if I
could hit him hard! Yet, if I happen to hurt him, I am so sorry!
and why then should I want to hurt him?"
"There's something in this little fellow!" said Donal to himself.
"Ah, why indeed?" he answered. "You see you don't understand
yourself yet!"
"No indeed!"
"Then how could you think I should understand you all at once?--and
a boy must be understood, else what's to become of him! Fancy a
poor boy living all day, and sleeping all night, and nobody
understanding him!"
"That would be dreadful! But you will understand me?"
"Only a little: I'm not wise enough to understand any boy."
"Then--but isn't that what you said you came for?--I thought--"
"Yes," answered Donal, "that is what I came for; but if I fancied I
quite understood any boy, that would be a sure sign I did not
understand him.
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