? ? ? ? "I shall try to do so, sir."
? ? ? ? "You mustn't expect to rise to be head salesman in a year. Festina lente, as the Latin poet has it."
? ? ? ? "I shall be satisfied with hastening slowly, sir."
? ? ? ? "What! you understand Latin?"
? ? ? ? "Pretty well, sir."
? ? ? ? "Upon my word, I didn't expect to find a boy in the News boys' Lodging House with classical attainments. Perhaps you know something of Greek also!" he said doubtfully.
? ? ? ? In reply Rodney repeated the first line of the Iliad.
? ? ? ? "Astonishing!" exclaimed Mr. Mulgrave, putting up his eyeglass, and surveying Rodney as if he were a curious specimen. "You don't happen to know anything of Sanscrit, do you?"
? ? ? ? "No, sir; I confess my ignorance."
? ? ? ? "I apprehend you won't require it in my friend Goodnow's establishment."
? ? ? ? "If I do, I will learn it," said Rodney, rather enjoying the joke.
? ? ? ? "If I write a book about America, I shall certainly put in a paragraph about a learned office boy. I think you are entitled to something for your knowledge of Greek and Latin--say five dollars apiece," and Mr.
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