Spelling in those days, however, had by no means crystallized itself into any definite form, and there was so large a latitude allowed that, if the letters used gave an approximate sound to the word, it was deemed sufficient.
The consequence was that Oswald's education progressed at a speed that would, in these more rigid days, be deemed impossible.

He was intensely interested in the work, and even his martial exercises were, for the time, secondary to it in his thoughts.

He felt so deeply grateful to his instructor that, even if he had struck him, he would have cared but little.

In those days rough knocks were readily given, and the idea that there was anything objectionable, in a boy being struck, had never been entertained by anyone.

Wives were beaten not uncommonly, servants frequently; and from the highest to the lowest, corporal punishment was regarded as the only way to ensure the carrying out of orders.
Oswald was slower in learning to write down the letters than he was to read them.