Mrs. Peterkin was in despair. Perhaps, if their books were taken
from them even then, they might forget what they had learned.
But no, the evil was done; the brain had received certain
impressions that could not be blurred over.
This was long ago, however. The little boys had since entered the
public schools. They went also to a gymnasium, and a whittling
school, and joined a class in music, and another in dancing; they
went to some afternoon lectures for children, when there was no
other school, and belonged to a walking-club. Still Mr. Peterkin
was dissatisfied by the slowness of their progress. He visited the
schools himself, and found that they did not lead their classes. It
seemed to him a great deal of time was spent in things that were
not instructive, such as putting on and taking off their india-rubber
boots.
Elizabeth Eliza proposed that they should be taken from school
and taught by Agamemnon from the Encyclop?dia. The rest of the
family might help in the education at all hours of the day.
Solomon John could take up the Latin grammar, and she could
give lessons in French.
The little boys were enchanted with the plan, only they did not
want to have the study-hours all the time.
Mr. Peterkin, however, had a magnificent idea, that they should
make their life one grand Object Lesson. They should begin at
breakfast, and study everything put upon the table,the material of
which it was made, and where it came from.
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