Part 15 (1/2)
”I should like to write a book.”
”What kind of a book?”
”A beautiful story.”
”Isn't it just as well to read such a book? Why should you want to write one?”
”Because then I should have it go just as I wanted it! I am always--almost always--disappointed with the thing that comes next. But if I wrote it myself, then I shouldn't get tired of it; it would be what pleased me, and not what pleased somebody else.”
”Well,” said Donal, after thinking for a moment, ”suppose you begin to write a book!”
”Oh, that will be fun!--much better than learning verbs and nouns!”
”But the verbs and nouns are just the things that go to make a story--with not a few adjectives and adverbs, and a host of conjunctions; and, if it be a very moving story, a good many interjections! These all you have got to put together with good choice, or the story will not be one you would care to read.--Perhaps you had better not begin till I see whether you know enough about those verbs and nouns to do the thing decently. Show me your school-books.”
”There they all are--on that shelf! I haven't opened one of them since Percy came home. He laughed at them all, and so Arkie--that's lady Arctura, told him he might teach me himself. And he wouldn't; and she wouldn't--with him to laugh at her. And I've had such a jolly time ever since--reading books out of the library! Have you seen the library, Mr. Grant?”
”No; I've seen nothing yet. Suppose we begin with a holiday, and you begin by teaching me!”
”Teaching you, sir! I'm not able to teach you!”
”Why, didn't you as much as offer to teach me the library? Can't you teach me this great old castle? And aren't you going to teach yourself to me?”
”That would be a funny lesson, sir!”
”The least funny, the most serious lesson you could teach me! You are a book G.o.d has begun, and he has sent me to help him go on with it; so I must learn what he has written already before I try to do anything.”
”But you know what a boy is, sir! Why should you want to learn me?”
”You might as well say that, because I have read one or two books, I must know every book. To understand one boy helps to understand another, but every boy is a new boy, different from every other boy, and every one has to be understood.”
”Yes--for sometimes Arkie won't hear me out, and I feel so cross with her I should like to give her a good box on the ear. What king was it, sir, that made the law that no lady, however disagreeable, was to have her ears boxed? Do you think it a good law, sir?”
”It is good for you and me anyhow.”
”And when Percy says, 'Oh, go away! don't bother,' I feel as if I could hit him hard! Yet, if I happen to hurt him, I am so sorry! and why then should I want to hurt him?”
”There's something in this little fellow!” said Donal to himself. ”Ah, why indeed?” he answered. ”You see you don't understand yourself yet!”
”No indeed!”
”Then how could you think I should understand you all at once?--and a boy must be understood, else what's to become of him! Fancy a poor boy living all day, and sleeping all night, and n.o.body understanding him!”
”That would be dreadful! But you will understand me?”
”Only a little: I'm not wise enough to understand any boy.”
”Then--but isn't that what you said you came for?--I thought--”
”Yes,” answered Donal, ”that is what I came for; but if I fancied I quite understood any boy, that would be a sure sign I did not understand him.--There is one who understands every boy as well as if there were no other boy in the whole world.”