THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT WRITE. 55

THE GREEKS.

The Greeks were a very warlike people. Socrates was a
Greek, and so was Homer. The Peloponnesian War was
long and bloody, and is one to be remembered, when time
shall be no more.

(A large blot.)
QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Queen Elizabeth died in 1603. Macaulay says, “ In 1603
the great Queen died.” That is a great deal better way to
say it, 1 know. She wore a ruff, and killed somebody. I
think it was Leicester. I cannot think of anything else to

say about her.
(Many tears.)

MIRTHFULNESS.

Mirthfulness is one of the most remarkable traits of the
human heart.

(An abrupt stop.)

“Nevertheless,” said the learned lady, less confidently,
“Tl try her.”

The learned lady tried her, in awful earnest. Jem had
never been so tried before. Classical Dictionaries and Eng-
lish Grammars, Russell’s Speakers and Parker’s Outlines,
Somebody’s Elements (but what they were elements of, poor
Jem has never discovered to this day) and Somebody Else’s
Young Author, piled in bulwarks on Jem’s study-table. Pa-
tiently, aspiringly, bitterly, tearfully, despairingly, Jem