The only book they read was the "Comic History of Rome," the property of Gilray.

This they liked so much that Primus papered the inside of his box with pictures from it.

The only authors they consulted me about were "two big swells" called Descartes and James Payn, of whom Primus discovered that the one could always work best in bed, while the other thought Latin and Greek a mistake.

It was the intention of the pirates to call old Poppy's attention to these gentlemen's views.
[Illustration] Soon after Primus came to me I learned that his schoolmaster had given him a holiday task.

All the "fellows" in his form had to write an essay entitled "My Holidays, and How I Turned Them to Account," and to send it to their preceptor.