ds.

"That is too bad," I exclaimed. "A pretty figure I will make, going
through the streets in this state."

"Never mind, Charlie," he answered. "Come into old Spurling's shop; he
will sew it up in a trice. He always mends our things; and I will pay
for it."

I at once accepted my school-fellow's offer; and we made our way to the
narrow lane in which Andrew's small shop was situated. I had never
before been there, though I had occasionally seen his tall, gaunt figure
as he wended his way to church on Sunday; for on no other day in the
week did he appear out of doors.

"Here's Charlie Blore, who wants to have his jacket mended, Mr
Spurling," said Dick, introducing me.

"A grammar-school boy?" asked the tailor, looking at me.

"Yes; and in my class," answered Dick.

"Oh! then you are reading Xenophon and Horace," observed the tailor; and
he quoted a passage from each author, both of which I was able to
translate, greatly to his satisfaction. "You will soon be turning to
other languages, I hope," he observed, not having as yet touched my
jacket, which I had taken off and handed to him.

"I should like to know a good many," I answered: "French, German, and
Italian."

"Very well in their way," observed Andrew; "but there are many I prefer
which open up new worlds to our view: for every language we learn, we
obtain further power of obtaining information and communicating our
thoughts to others. Hebrew, for instance: where can we go without
finding some of the ancient people? or Arabic, current over the whole
Eastern world, from the Atlantic shores of Africa to the banks of the
Indus? Have you ever read the `Arabian Nights'?" asked Andrew.

"Yes, part of it," I answered.

"Then think how delightful it would be to read it in the language in
which it is written, and still more to visit the scenes therein
described. I began six years ago--and I wish that some great man would
invite me to accompany him to Syria, or Morocco, or Egypt, or other
Eastern lands; though that is not likely." And Andrew sighed.
"However, my young friends, as you may have a chance of visiting those
regions, take my advice: Study Arabic; you will find it of more use than
Greek or Latin, which no one speaks nowadays--more's the pity. I will
instruct you. Come here whenever you can. I will lend you my books, or
tell you where you may purchase others. I won't say how soon you will
master the language; that depends on capacity,"--and