Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 449 | Page 3

the matter.'
'What! my son,' said the patriarch, 'would you have me go to the sultan,
and undertake to teach his bear to read? You do not know how difficult
it is even to teach young children.' But the deacon pleaded so earnestly,
that his superior at length consented; and returning to the palace, the
patriarch signified to the sultan, that he had thought better of the
subject, and was willing to do anything in his power to give his sublime
highness satisfaction.
'No doubt you can, if you will,' said the sultan hastily, but not in
ill-humour; 'and I expect you to do it--you might as well have agreed to
it at once.'
When the patriarch was at home, seated in his armchair, with his
deacons standing on each side, and a little recovered from the fatigue of
the walk, he turned to Titus, and said: 'Well, my son, and what am I to
do now?'
'Nothing, my father,' replied the deacon cheerfully. 'You have done all I
asked you to do, and what remains I will readily undertake.'
So he made his bow, and set off to make his arrangements. He chose a
little square room up one pair of stairs in the north turret, and parted off
about a third of it with strong horizontal bars, six inches apart. The two
lowest bars were movable, and the spaces between them left open, to
admit air and light, as well as to allow the inmate to go in and be
brought out at the pleasure of his keepers; but all above them were
boarded over, except that one which was of such a height as would be
about even with the bear's head when he should stand on his hind legs.
This space was left open along the whole length of the den, so that, in
any part of it, he could very conveniently put forth his nose far enough

to look about him.
'And now,' said Titus to his comrade Timothy, when he had completed
these preparations, 'I must go to seek for a book and a desk; and if they
bring the bear before I come back, will you be so good as to see him
put in, and also to mind that the other end of the chain, which I have
padlocked to the staple in the wall, is fastened to his collar, and is long
enough to allow of his lying down comfortably in the straw, and taking
a little turn backwards and forwards, if he likes? and don't let them give
him anything to eat, and take care not to be out of the way--that is a
good fellow.'
'You may depend upon me,' said Timothy; and Titus went off to the
church, to see about a lectionary, for the bear to study, though, to say
the truth, not entirely, or even principally, with that intention; for he did
not mean that his pupil should commence that day, or the next; and he
was in no doubt which to choose among many old lectionaries that had
been laid aside. There was an immense one, with great brass knobs and
corners, out of which he had himself learned to chant long before he
could lift it, and indeed, now that he was come to man's estate, it was as
much as he could carry. This book he meant to use; but for the present
he contented himself with observing from the window the bear coming
to school in procession; and when he was satisfied that his pupil was in
safe custody, he descended from the church-tower, and went to see
after him. When he came to the door of the apartment, he waited a
moment to listen to what seemed an interchange of anything but
civilities between Timothy and his charge. Titus called out his
colleague; and, without going in himself, locked the door, and put the
key in his pocket.
'Won't you go in and look at him?' said Timothy, as they went down the
staircase together.
'Time enough,' said Titus; 'he will be better by himself just at present.
Had you much trouble in getting him in? How did he behave?'
'Rather restive,' replied Timothy; 'but we managed it among us. Should
not he have something to eat?'

'No,' said Titus; 'he has got plenty of water; he will do very well. But
now come and help me down with the old lectionary from the upper
vestry, for I don't think I can get it down that staircase myself.' Between
them the lectionary was safely brought down, and deposited, not in the
apartment, which we may now call the school-room, but in the chamber
of Titus, on a massy oak desk or lectern, which turned upon its pedestal,
and which they brought out from