SCHOOL. 23 



Following this child, whose very amusements are 

 intellectual, into the school-room, we perceive that he is 

 in a fair way to earn the reputation of dunce. Accus- 

 tomed to learn by the eye, to stray down vistas of 

 picture constructed for him by his imagination from the 

 materials of his favourite books, he takes no interest in 

 the mechanical operations of memory. The Latin Rudi- 

 ments in particular prove incapable of imaginative illu- 

 mination. The sluggard schoolmaster never tells him 

 that, if he be but brave enough to grope for a time as 

 through a dark passage, the classic wonderland will open 

 on his sight. An intelligent and spirited boy, to work 

 heartily at his tasks, must know what he is about, and 

 have some conception of the guerdon which is to reward 

 his toil. It never occurs to this schoolmaster that he 

 may be the dunce, stolidly inapprehensive of the re- 

 quirements of the case, and of the nature of his duty 

 towards his peculiar pupil. He takes the more obvious, 

 comfortable and human-natural course of deciding that 

 Hugh's uncles have overrated his abilities, and that he 

 is a mere ordinary dullard. 



Miller's trifling proved infectious. He had one day, 

 on some impulse of the moment, taken to relating, to the 

 boy who sat next him, the adventures of Sir William 

 Wallace. A group of fascinated listeners soon hung 

 round the interesting dunce. To narratives from Blind 

 Harry succeeded tales from Cook and Anson ; and when 

 these were exhausted, imagination was called upon to 

 supply the article in request. The improvising practice 

 he had enjoyed in his solitary walks now stood him in 

 good stead, and he regaled his auditors with 



boyish histories, 



Of battle, bold adventure, dung-eon, wreck, 

 Flights, terrors, sudden rescues. 



