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AMUSING BLUNDERS.

329

I asked the meaning of "raiment," and got the answer "Clothes." Then what is "fit raiment"? Answer, "Hose and shoon."

An advanced class had read "Othello." The Moor, in his defence for marrying, says that Desdemona asked that he

"Should all his pilgrimage relate,

Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively."

I asked the meaning of "by parcels," and was told that she had got it by the parcel post.

There are few exercises more difficult for the average pupil than writing a paraphrase of a poetical passage, and none in which senseless blunders are so often made. The thoughtless girl or boy thinks that nothing more is necessary than to exchange one word for another which is found in the dictionary. For example, Milton speaks of the plausibility of Belial's speech, but says, "All was false and hollow," for which the paraphrase given was, "All was untrue and excavated."

I have the permission of a colleague to record one of a totally different type. In the 'Lady of the Lake' Fitz-James says to Roderick Dhu

"Now, yield thee, or by Him who made

The world, thy heart's blood dyes my blade!"

For this the paraphrase given was, "If ye dinna gie in, by God, I'll kill ye!" Distinctly colloquial, but perfectly correct, and probably more like Fitz-James's actual utterance than Sir Walter's

version.

Chaucer in his Prologue, describing the "Merye Frier," says, "And rage he couthe as dothe a whelpe," for which the paraphrase given was, "He was a rough tyke "—not a bad paraphrase, but probably not what Chaucer meant.

It would be difficult to find a better example of confusion or absence of thought than is furnished by a girl in a high-class school, who in an essay on Newton wrote, "The philosopher Sir Isaac Newton was the first to make the great discovery that when an apple becomes over-ripe it falls to the ground"; or one showing less skill in composition and greater scarcity of ideas than the boy who, in an essay on salt, confined himself to the simple statement, "Salt is a stuff which, if it is not boiled with potatoes, makes them nasty."

My colleague Mr Scougal examining a class in history tried to get from them the other name of Graham of Claverhouse. To help them to it he asked them to name any Scottish songs they knew.

AN ANSWER IN VERSE.

331

Among others "The Bonnets of bonny Dundee " was given. Getting a boy to repeat the refrain, "Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can," ending with "Up with the bonnets of bonnie Dundee," he said that Graham's other name was mentioned in that song, when a boy, delighted at the discovery, bawled out "Philip M'Cann."

It is pleasant to come across specimens of schoolwork in which more than average ability and something akin to sparkle and imagination are found. Instances of this kind are of course somewhat rare, by far the largest proportion of school-children, as of mankind generally, being essentially commonplace. The following strikes me as worth recording:

At the examination of a higher class girls' school in Banff I prescribed as an exercise in composition 'The Autobiography of an old Horse.' One girl about fifteen years of age prefaced her exercise by saying that she was not up in natural history, nor knowing in horse-flesh, and ventured to substitute the following verses instead of the autobiography asked for :

"Dear teacher, it is very hard

To write 'mid such a row:

My wits have gone to gather wool,

And addled is my pow.

'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for

A horse' of any kind!

A coal-black steed, a gallant grey,

A lame, a screw, a blind!

Come, Muses, Graces! come and help

A pilgrim on her way,

Who fain would climb Parnassus hill

On Pegasus this day.

Come, Jupiter! Come any one!

Will no one list my call?
Nay, nay, the Muses, Graces all
Are dressing for the ball.1

Pons asinorum I can't cross;
I'm fairly off the line,

Although my eyes look to the skies
In rolling frenzy fine.

No doubt good Mrs S― expects
That all her youth and beauty
Before the Queen's examiner
This day will do their duty.

I'll give it up. The job is bad,
For aching are my orbs.
Excuse me, and I'll ever be

Your leal ELIZA FORBES."

1 There was to be a ball that night in Duff House, near Banff.

THE TYPICAL FISHERMAN.

333

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE TYPICAL FISHERMAN INSCRIPTIONS-SIR GEORGE GROVE
-CROFTERS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS-A TICKLESOME CAR-
DRIVER-IRISH BULLS AND REPARTEES-DANIEL WEBSTER,
THE AMERICAN ORATOR
BRIGADE DRILL.

SIR JOHN MACDONALD

FIRE

My vacations in autumn were spent in various ways, sometimes in shooting and fishing in the north of Scotland, sometimes in England, very often in a run to the Continent, once to Ireland, and once to America. I shall confine myself to a very few of the reminiscences connected with these holiday excursions.

One sometimes hears humorous remarks, with a certain flavour of the epigram in them, from quarters where they are least expected. Some years ago I was one of a large party in a country house on the banks of Loch Awe. The party was so large that it was found expedient to divide it, one-half going to shoot, the other to fish. I joined the shooting section, and we returned with

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