"What a young innocent you are," he cried, laughing; and then seeing my pained look, he slapped me on the shoulder again. "It's all right, my boy. You can't help it; and you'll soon learn all these things. I know a lot, but so do you--a sight o' things I don't. Why, I'll be bound to say you could write a long letter without making a single mistake in the spelling." "Yes, I think I could," I said innocently. "Both papa and mamma took great pains with me over that." "Look at that, now!" he said. "Why, I couldn't write two lines in my pocket-book without putting down something as the sergeant would chaff." "Chaff?" I said, "cut-up stuff for horses?" "Yes: that's it," he said, grinning. "Stuff as they cut up. There, you'll soon know what chaff is, my lad. But, you know, all the same, and speaking quite fair, I do maintain as spelling ain't square." "Not square?" "I mean fair and square and above-board. Them as invented spelling couldn't have been very clever, or they'd have made everything spelt as it sounded. Why, it only seems natural to spell doctor's stuff f-i-z-z-i-k, and here you have to stick in _p's_, and _h's_, and _y's_, and _s's_, and _c's_, as ain't wanted at all." "It is puzzling, certainly," I said. "Puzzling? Puzzling ain't nothing to it. I can write a fair round hand, and spell fast enough my way. Our sergeant says there isn't a man on our station as can write such a nice looking report; but when it comes to the spelling--there, I won't tell you what he said about that!" "But you could soon improve your spelling." "Think so?" he said eagerly. "Oh no, I don't fancy we could." "I am sure you could," I said. "The best way is to do dictation." "Dictation? What, ordering about?" "Oh no; not that sort of dictation. I mean for me to read to you from a book and you write it down, and then I mark all the misspelt words, and you write them down and learn them." "Look at that now!" he exclaimed. "To be sure, that's the way. Now, you know, I bought a spelling-book, that didn't seem to do no good; so I bought a pocket dictionary, and that was such a job to go through, so full of breakneck words as no one never heard of before, that I give that up. Why, you ain't innocent after all. Would you mind trying me?" "Mind! no," I cried; "we could use either a slate or paper." "So we could, and do it with either a pencil or a pen. I say, come: fair and square, I'll teach you all I know if you'll teach me all you know." "That's agreed," I said.