"Not take it! nonsense! if you do not take it, it will be because the
examiners do not know their business! Why, Ishmael, there can be no
question as to the relative merits of your composition and mine! Mine
will not bear an instant's comparison with yours."
"Your thesis is perfectly correct; there is not a mistake in it," said
Ishmael encouragingly.
"Oh, yes, it is correct enough; but yours, Ishmael, is not only that,
but more! for it is strong, logical, eloquent! Now I can be accurate
enough, for that matter; but I cannot be anything more! I cannot be
strong, logical, or eloquent in my own native and living language, much
less in a foreign and a dead one! So, Ishmael, you will gain the prize."
"I am quite sure that I shall not," replied our boy.
"Then it will be because our examiners will know no more of Greek than I
do, and not so much as yourself! And as that cannot possibly be the
case, they must award you the prize, my boy. And you shall be welcome to
it for me! I have done my duty in doing the very best I could; and if
you excel me by doing better still, Heaven forbid that I should be so
base as to grudge you the reward you have so well earned. So God bless
you, old boy," said Walter, as he parted from his friend.