over hard or over soft,
because he cannot see all sides at once. Now they saw Paul's side, his
simplicity, and his suffering; the chaplain had only seen the chances of
his conveying the seeds of ungodly teaching to the workhouse children; he
could not tell that the pitch which Paul had not touched by his own will,
had not stuck by him--probably owing to that very simplicity which had
made him so helpless in common life.

Having learnt all this, Mr. Cope proposed to Paul to use the time of his
recovery in learning as much as he could, so as to be ready in case any
opportunity should offer for gaining his livelihood by his head rather
than by his hands.

Paul's face glowed. He liked nothing better than to be at a book, and
with Mr. Cope to help him by bright encouragements and good-natured
explanations instead of tweaks of the ears and raps on the knuckles, what
could be pleasanter? So Mr. Cope lent him books, set him questions, and
gave him pen, ink, and copy-book, and he toiled away with them till his
senses grew dazed, and his back ached beyond bearing; so that 'Mother,'
as he called her now, caught him up, and made him lie on his bed to rest,
threatening to tell Mr. Cope not to set him anything so hard; while Ellen
watched in wonder at any one being so clever, and was proud of whatever
Mr. Cope said he did well; and Harold looked on him as a more
extraordinary creature than the pie-bald horse in the show, who wore a
hat and stood on his hind legs, since he really was vexed when book and
slate were taken out of his hands.

He would have over-tasked himself in his weakness much more, if it had
not been for his lovingness to Alfred. To please Alfred was always his
first thought; and even if a difficult sum were just on the point of
proving itself, he would leave off at the first moment of seeing Alfred
look as if he wanted to be read to, and would miss all his calculations,
to answer some question--who was going down the village, or what that
noise could be.

Alfred tried to be considerate, and was sorry when he saw by a furrow on
Paul's brow that he was trying to win up again all that some trifling
saying had made him lose. But Alfred was not scholar enough to perceive
the teasing of such interruptions, and even had he been aware of it, he
was not in a state when he could lie quite still long together without
disturbing any one; he could amuse himself much less than formerly, and
often had most distressing rest