294 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
pleased to experience the odd, stupid sensation 
of having people talk loud to us as being for- 
eigners, and of seeing even the little children 
so much more at their ease than we were; 
and every step beyond this was a new enjoy- 
ment. We found the requisites for learning 
a language on its own soil to be a firm will, a 
quick ear, flexible lips, and a great deal of cool 
audacity. Plunge boldly in, expecting to make 
countless blunders ; find out the shops where 
they speak English, and avoid them; make 
your first bargains at twenty-five per cent dis- 
advantage, and charge it as a lesson in the 
language ; expect to be laughed at, and laugh 
yourself, because you win. The daily labor is 
its own reward. If it is a pleasure to look 
through a telescope in an observatory, grad- 
ually increasing its powers until a dim nebula 
is resolved into a whole galaxy of separate stars, 
how much more when the nebula is one of lan- 
guage, close around you, and the telescope is 
your own more educated ear ! 
We discovered further, what no one had ever 
told us, that the ability to speak French, how- 
ever poorly, is rather a drawback in learning 
any less universal language, because the best 
company in any nation will usually have some 
knowledge of French, and this tempts one to 
remain on neutral ground and be lazy. But 
