We would dream about desert islands, about manufacturing electric
batteries in the fashion of the engineer Cyrus Harding, and as we were
not very certain of finding any "Granite House" during the course of our
adventures, Ricardo would paint and paint at plans and elevations of
houses which we hoped to construct in its place in those far-off, savage
lands.
He also made pictures of ships which we took care should be rigged
properly.
There were two variations of this dream of adventure--one involving a
snow-house, with appropriate episodes such as nocturnal attacks by
bears, wolves, and the like, and then we planned a sea voyage.
I rebelled a long time at the notion that my life must be like that of
everybody else, but I had no recourse in the end but to capitulate.
IX
AS A STUDENT
I was never more than commonplace as a student, inclining rather to be
bad than good. I had no great liking for study, and, to tell the truth,
I never entertained any clear idea of what I was studying.
For example, I never knew what the word preterite meant until years
after completing my course, although I had repeated over and over again
that the preterite, or past perfect, was thus, while the imperfect was
thus, without having any conception that the word preterite meant past--
that it was a past that was entirely past in the former case, and a past
that was past to a less degree in the latter.
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