Archag worked at his lessons with enthusiasm, and the days and weeks passed very quickly. Most of the professors admired his earnestness and intelligence, and were pleased with the progress he made, but unfortunately he had failed to win the favor of Mr. Piralian, who continued to dislike him. It must be confessed that Archag showed little interest in his English lessons; he had never been willing to alter his pronunciation, for he considered Miss Dobbie an excellent teacher, and since she said "auld" and "gir-r-l", of course that must be right. Therefore, he argued, Professor Piralian was in the wrong and spoke incorrectly; he did not know how to teach, and it was not worth while to work very hard. Our friend thus drew a quantity of false conclusions, with the superb recklessness of youth. In his Christmas reports he was marked "good," and "very good" in everything except English, in which he had only "medium"; but this made very little impression upon him; he knew that he had not done good work, and did not expect anything better. Garabed stood first in the class, then came Dikran and Archag. Aram was fifth. Nejib, who had always been among the first, stood only eighth because of his bad conduct mark. The advent of the Christmas holidays was, of course, hailed by the boys with shouts of joy. What great games they would play! What a jolly time they were going to have during those two weeks! On New Year's Day, the Sophomores were invited to the house of Hosep Paelian, one of the day pupils, and they had a delightful time with him. They were constantly going to the bazaar to do their Christmas shopping, and returning surrounded with an air of mystery, bringing big parcels which they hid in their trunks. At this point I hear my readers exclaim, "What! Christmas after New Year's Day? The world must certainly be upside-down over there!" It does indeed seem odd to us to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in the month of January. But the Gregorians use the Greek calendar, which is twelve days later than ours. They keep Christmas on the Feast of the Three Kings, the sixth day of January, that is, the eighteenth, New Style. President Mills had a pine tree brought from Amanus, a mountain to the west of Aintab. For several days the sun was hidden by snow-storms, and this Oriental Christmas differed little from the same season in the North. In the afternoon of Christmas Day, Professor Pagratian conducted a service in the college chapel, after which masters and pupils gathered together for dinner in the great dining-room.