s said, "Yes, of him; if he could get leave."

"Well, if you cannot get leave, I will teach you myself in the
play-hours, or at any odd times. You stay in so much, and play so
little with the other boys, that you will not mind that, I know," he
said, in a kind encouraging voice. "You will learn soon, I know, and
then we will walk together, and talk French, and you will learn more
rapidly than any one else."

"Thank you, sir! indeed, thank you!" said poor Ellis, the tears coming
into his eyes. "It is very kind to take so much trouble with a person
like me. I will do whatever you tell me."

"Then write home, and get leave to learn, and I will tell you what you
shall do in the meantime," replied the French master. "Get into your
head as large a vocabulary of words as you can collect. Put down in a
little pocket-book the French and English of everything you can think
of. Thus: write down, a boy, a man, a book, a desk, and I will show you
how to pronounce them properly. Here is a book; accept it from me; I
got it on purpose for you. Now write down a boy; now the French,
garcon. The _c_ you hear is soft. Roll the _r_ well in your mouth.
Repeat it frequently." Monsieur Malin made him write down numerous
other words, and repeated them over to him frequently till he had caught
their exact sounds. "Now, my boy, you have learned your first French
lesson," he observed. "Every day add as many words as these to your
vocabulary. Begin with the substantives; go on to the adjectives, next
the verbs; then study the construction of the language; the simple rules
of grammar; and lastly, in the same manner that you have learned single
words, collect the idioms of the language. Read constantly aloud, and
learn by heart interesting portions of modern French writings especially
the speeches of the best orators of the present day, and I can promise
you that in a very short time you will become a very fair French
scholar."

Ellis saw the wisdom of Monsieur Malin's advice, and implicitly followed
it. Bracebridge helped him, and they in a short time were able to
converse together. In the meantime Ellis got leave to learn French, and
some of the boys were very much surprised, and rather indignant, to find
him put in one of the upper classes.

"That's the fellow who pretended that he did not know French, and has
all the time been listening to us, and overhearing all we said,"
remarked Blackall, whose own knowledge of the langu