Three good giants

It was a great day for Gargantua when he reached the end of his two hundred and fifteen games ; or, rather, he intended that it should be a great day. He had said nothing to any one ; but, when he woke that particular morning, he was noticed to be in a gayer mood than usual while he was dressing himself, and after he had gamboled and rolled around his bed, and stretched his limbs on it, and made his own great tent with one leg and the sheet, and given a neat turn to his long locks with his German comb, and gone through his usual gaping, coughing, spitting, groaning, sneezing, and hiccoughing. But, being in some things a very simple Giant, indeed, he had not noticed that his teacher, Ponocrates, had very keen eyes, and could use them too. Why, Ponocrates knew when the last game was to be played just as well as Gargantua himself did, and he had made up his mind to be somewhere in the room when it closed. Sure enough, listening in a corner of the big chamber, he heard some one say : " Here we are on our last game!" To which Gargantua shouted in reply : " Ho ! ho ! The last game ! Don't be too sure of that. Gentlemen, to-morrow we shall play just as well as to-day."

"How, Prince?" asked Ponocrates, softly, coming out of his corner.

"How, good Master? Why, by beginning our games over again."

" Not so fast; not so fast, Prince. To-morrow Your Highness will begin with ME ! "

CHAPTER XII. GARGANTUA IS DOSED BY PONOCRATES, AND FORGETS ALL THAT HOLOFERNES HAD TAUGHT HIM.

WHILE the two hundred and fifteen games, taking up just that number of days, were being played, Master Ponocrates had not been at all idle. He had already consulted with Master Theodore — a wise physician of that time — and knew just what he was going to do when he had said: —

" To-morrow Your Highness will begin with ME."

The first thing was to dose Gargan-tua with a mysterious herb, which made him forget all that he had ever learned under his old teacher. This was not an original idea at all with either Theodore or Ponocrates, for Thimotes, the music-master of Miletus, had long before dosed, in the same way, such disciples of his as had been unlucky enough to have first learned their notes under other musicians. Gargantua, when asked by Ponocrates to meet certain scientific gentlemen of Paris who had been specially invited to inspire the royal Giant with love of knowledge, was so weak and pale after his dose that he could only bow his head, while wondering lazily to himself what all these heavy talks about Science had to do with the Latin, which his good old Father Grandgousier had been so anxious for him to learn.

When he had been dosed enough to forget his old studies, and even to look up with a mild surprise when his dearly-loved Master Holofernes was mentioned, Gargantua was put through a course of study, in which he did not lose a single hour of the day. Only think how much he must have learned each day ! First, he was roused up, whether he wanted or not, at four o'clock every morning, when he said his prayers. While the attendants were rubbing his body down, a young page would read, in a loud voice, so as to be heard above the scrubbing, some extracts from a book of good doctrine. After this, being not more than half-dressed yet, his practice was to visit each of his companions in his room, and with a gentle " Get thee up, my boy ! get thee up !" awake the lazy fellow from his slumbers. Then he returned to his room, where he found Ponocrates always ready to explain what was doubtful in the chapters that had been read to him, and to ask him whether he had

PONOCRATES DOSES GARGANTUA.

noted, as he should, what signs the sun morning, and what moon would have was entering that aspect he thought the that night.

It was only after this that his attendants began to dress him, to perfume him, to curl him, and to powder him — Gargantua all the while not once venturing to use that large, well-thumbed German comb of which he had once been so proud. While all this was going on, the same page would repeat the lesson of the day. Gargantua, thoroughly dosed and brought down to a most anxious desire for study, learned after two or three days to repeat the lessons by heart. Everybody looked glad at this — none more so than good Master Ponocrates himself— especially when the debate touched on such a question as the "Human State," which was made the special lesson for two or three hours. While Gargantua was still puzzling over the reading of the