"Now is that all you will want?" asked Forester.
"Why, yes, I should think so," said Marco. "If I should want any thing
else, I can ask you, you know. You are going to stay here and study
too?"
"Yes," said Forester; "but your asking me is just what I wish to
avoid. I wish to arrange it so that we shall both have our time to
ourselves, without interruption."
"But I shall have to ask you questions when I get into difficulty,"
said Marco.
"No," said Forester, "I hope not. I mean to contrive it so that you
can get out of difficulty yourself. Let me see. You will want some
pens. I will get a bunch of quills and make them up into pens for
you."
"What, a whole bunch?" said Marco.
"Yes," replied Forester. "I don't wish to have you come to me, when I
am in the midst of a law argument, to get me to make a pen."
Steel pens were very little used in those days.
While Forester was making the pens, he said,
"There are twenty-five quills in a bunch. I shall tie them up, when
they are ready, into two bunches, of about a dozen in each. These you
will put in your desk. When you want a pen, you will draw one out of
the bunches and use it. You must not stop to look them over, to choose
a good one, but you must take any one that comes first to hand,
because, if any one should not be good, the sooner you get it out and
try it, and ascertain that it is not good, the sooner you will get it
out of the way."
"Well," said Marco, "and what shall I do with the bad ones?"
"Wipe them clean, - by the way, you must have a good penwiper, - and
then put them together in a particular place in your desk. When you
have thus used one bunch, tie them up and lay the bunch on my desk to
be mended, and then you can go on using the other bunch. This will
give me opportunity to choose a convenient time to mend the first
bunch again. When I have mended them, I will tie them up and lay them
on your desk again. Thus you will always have a supply of pens, and I
shall never be interrupted to mend one. This will be a great deal more
convenient, both for you and for me."
"Only it will use up a great many more pens," replied Marco.
