Rapid, I do not mean to question your abilities; but if you are now
wholly unacquainted with the dead languages, it is impossible for you or
any other talented man to learn them under four or five years."
"Pshoo! foo! I'll bet I larn one in three weeks! Try me, sir,--let's
have the furst one furst--how many are there?"
"Mr. Rapid, it is utterly impossible; but if you insist, I will loan you
a Latin book--"
"That's your sort, let's have it, that's all I want, fair play."
Accordingly, I handed him a copy of Historiae Sacrae, with which he soon
went away, saying, he "didn't allow it would take long to git through
Latin, if 'twas only sich a thin patch of a book as that."
In a few weeks, to my no small surprise, Mr. Solomon Rapid again
presented himself; and drawing forth the book began with a triumphant
expression of countenance:
"Well, sir, I have done the Latin."
"Done the Latin!"
"Yes, I can read it as fast as English."
"Read it as fast as English!!"
"Yes, as fast as English--and I didn't find it hard at all."
"May I try you on a page?"
"Try away, try away; that's what I've come for."
"Please read here then, Mr. Rapid;" and in order to give him a fair
chance, I pointed to the first lines of the first chapter, viz.: "In
principio Deus creavit coelum et terram intra sex dies; primo die
fecit lucem," etc.
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