them."

"I wish you could, Fred, my boy," said the monk, smiling; "but you must
first learn."

"That's what I want to do," cried the boy eagerly. "But how am I to
learn?"

"By watching me. Now see."

Swythe rose from the table and opened a box, out of which he took a
crisp clean piece of nearly transparent sheepskin and a couple of quill
pens, sat down again, and then from another box he drew out a piece of
lead and a flat ruler--not a lead-pencil such as is now used, but a
little pointed piece of ordinary lead--with which he deftly made a few
straight lines across the parchment, and then very carefully drew a
beautiful capital A, which he finished off with scrolls and turns and
tiny vine-leaves with a running stalk and half-a-dozen tendrils.

"But you have put no grapes," cried Alfred.

"Give me time," said Swythe good-humouredly, and directly after he
faintly sketched in a bunch of grapes, broad at the top and growing
narrower till it ended in one grape alone.

"Oh, I wish I could do that!" cried Alfred eagerly. "But I could never
do it so well!"

"I'm going to persevere till I make you do it better," said Swythe.
"Now we'll leave that for a bit and begin a Latin lesson."

Alfred sighed and looked longingly at the faint initial letter.

But his interest was taken up directly, for Swythe took up one of his
quill pens, examined it, and then, after giving the ink a stir, dipped
in his pen and tried it.

The next minute, while the boy sat resting his chin upon his hands, it
seemed as if beautifully-formed tiny letters kept on growing out of the
pen, running off at the point, and standing one after another in a row,
almost exactly the same size, till four words stood out clearly upon the
cream-coloured parchment.

As he formed the letters with his clever white fingers, Swythe repeated
the name of each, pausing a little to give finish and effect as well as
sound to the words he formed, till he had, after beginning some little
distance in, made so many words upon one of the faintly-drawn lines and
reaching right across the parchment.

"It's wonderful!" cried Alfred. "I could never do that!"

"It is not wonderful, and you soon will be able to do it," said Swythe;
"but let's say all those words over again letter by letter, and then the
words."

"They are Latin?" asked the boy.

"Yes," said Swythe, "and you are going to learn them so as to know them
next time you see them."

Alfred shook his head, bu