, sitting
down beside him, while Franz led a class of small students through the
intricacies of the multiplication table.

"Do I?" and Nat looked utterly incredulous.

"Yes; for one thing, you can keep your temper, and Jack, who is quick
at numbers, cannot; that is an excellent lesson, and I think you have
learned it well. Then, you can play the violin, and not one of the lads
can, though they want to do it very much. But, best of all, Nat, you
really care to learn something, and that is half the battle. It seems
hard at first, and you will feel discouraged, but plod away, and things
will get easier and easier as you go on."

Nat's face had brightened more and more as he listened, for, small as
the list of his learning was, it cheered him immensely to feel that
he had anything to fall back upon. "Yes, I can keep my temper father's
beating taught me that; and I can fiddle, though I don't know where the
Bay of Biscay is," he thought, with a sense of comfort impossible to
express. Then he said aloud, and so earnestly that Demi heard him:

"I do want to learn, and I will try. I never went to school, but I
couldn't help it; and if the fellows don't laugh at me, I guess I'll get
on first rate you and the lady are so good to me."

"They shan't laugh at you; if they do, I'll I'll tell them not to,"
cried Demi, quite forgetting where he was.

The class stopped in the middle of 7 times 9, and everyone looked up to
see what was going on.

Thinking that a lesson in learning to help one another was better than
arithmetic just then, Mr. Bhaer told them about Nat, making such an
interesting and touching little story out of it that the good-hearted
lads all promised to lend him a hand, and felt quite honored to be
called upon to impart their stores of wisdom to the chap who fiddled so
capitally. This appeal established the right feeling among them, and Nat
had few hindrances to struggle against, for every one was glad to give
him a "boost" up the ladder of learning.

Till he was stronger, much study was not good for him, however, and Mrs.
Jo found various amusements in the house for him while others were at
their books. But his garden was his best medicine, and he worked away
like a beaver, preparing his little farm, sowing his beans, watching
eagerly to see them grow, and rejoicing over each green leaf and slender
stock that shot up and flourished in the warm spring weather. Never
was a garden more faithfully hoed; Mr. Bhaer