 remember it while you're at school, else you've got to learn ever so
many lines of Speaker. Mr. Stelling's very particular - did you know? He'll have
you up ten times if you say nam for jam ... he won't let you go a letter wrong,
I can tell you.«
    »O, I don't mind,« said Philip, unable to choke a laugh; »I can remember
things easily. And there are some lessons I'm very fond of. I'm very fond of
Greek history and everything about the Greeks. I should like to have been a
Greek and fought the Persians, and then have come home and have written
tragedies, or else have been listened to by everybody for my wisdom, like
Socrates, and have died a grand death.« (Philip, you perceive, was not without a
wish to impress the well-made barbarian with a sense of his mental superiority.)
    »Why, were the Greeks great fighters?« said Tom, who saw a vista in this
direction. »Is there anything like David, and Goliath, and Samson, in the Greek
history? Those are the only bits I like in the history of the Jews.«
    »O, there are very fine stories of that sort about the Greeks - about the
heroes of early times who killed the wild beasts, as Samson did. And in the
Odyssey - that's a beautiful poem - there's a more wonderful giant than Goliath
- Polypheme, who had only one eye in the middle of his forehead; and Ulysses, a
little fellow, but very wise and cunning, got a red-hot pine-tree and stuck it
into this one eye, and made him roar like a thousand bulls.«
    »O, what fun!« said Tom, jumping away from the table, and stamping first
with one leg and then the other. »I say, can you tell me all about those
stories? Because I shan't learn Greek you know ... Shall I?« he added, pausing
in his stamping with a sudden alarm, lest the contrary might be possible. »Does
every gentleman learn Greek? ... Will Mr. Stelling make me begin with it, do you
think?«
    »No, I should think not - very likely not,« said Philip. »But you may read
those stories without knowing Greek. I've got them in English.«
    »O, but I don't like reading
