It  is  not  perfectly  clear,  now  that  I  come  to  cipher
upon  it.  He  gets  up  at  about  five  in  the  morning,  or
along  there  somewhere,  and  goes  to  t)ed  about
fifteen  or  sixteen  hours  afterward — that  much  of  it

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FOLLOWING    THE    EQUATOR

seems  straight;  but  why  he  should  rise  again  three
hours  later  anjl  resume  his  studies  till  morning  is
puzzling.
I  think  it  is  because  he  is  studying  history.  His-
tory requires  a  world  of  time  and  bitter  hard  work
when  your  "education"  is  no  further  advanced  than
the  cat's;  when  you  are  merely  stufl&ng  yourself
with  a  mixed-up  mess  of  empty  names  and  random
incidents  and  elusive  dates,  which  no  one  teaches
you  how  to  interpret,  and  which,  tminterpreted,  pay
you  not  a  farthing's  value  for  your  waste  of  time.
Yes,  I  think  he  had  to  get  up  at  half  past  ii  p.m.
in  order  to  be  sure  to  be  perfect  with  his  history
lesson  by  noon.  With  results  as  follows — ^from  a
Calcutta  school  examination:

Q.  Who  was  Cardinal  Wolsey?

Cardinal  Wolsey  was  an  Editor  of  a  paper  named  North  Briton,
No.  45  of  his  publication  he  charged  the  King  of  uttering  a  lie
from  the  throne.  He  was  arrested  and  cast  into  prison;  and
after  releasing  went  to  France.
3.  As  Bishop  of  York  but  died  in  disentry  in  a  church  on  his
way  to  be  blockheaded.
