The Last Samurai

Today was my fifth day of school. It was boring.

18 September

Today is Saturday. I mastered 20 characters in Halpern. 417 to go. I told Sibylla I thought I should do some more French and Greek and Latin and Hebrew and Arabic even though I was doing Japanese because apparently I will not get to do them at school until I am 12 and I was afraid I would forget them by then. I thought Sibylla would be appalled but she just said all right. I also pointed out that they probably would not teach me German either until I was 12 so it might be a good idea if she taught me instead. I thought she was going to say I would have to do a lot of Japanese first but instead she said she would show me a little poem because I had been so good all week. The poem was called Erlkönig by Goethe, about a boy who is riding on a horse behind his father and the Erlking keeps calling the boy and the father doesn’t hear and then the boy dies.

19 September

Today was Sunday so I did not have to go to school. I read Amundsen and Scott. I mastered 30 Japanese characters thoroughly and Sibylla commented, ‘Well, at least Mr. Ma will never know, I shudder to think what he would think.’ I asked, ‘Who is Mr. Ma?’ Sibylla said he was the father of a famous cellist. I asked, ‘Is he a travel writer?’ Sibylla said, ‘Not to my knowledge, jinsai.’

MY SECOND WEEK AT SCHOOL

20 September

Today when I got home from school Sibylla was in a terrible state. She said Red Devlin had been taken hostage in Azerbaijan. I asked who was Red Devlin. She said he was a journalist. She said everyone said he could persuade anyone to do anything. He was called Red because he didn’t have red hair and because he was brave to the point of insanity. He had been in Lebanon and then he had gone to Azerbaijan and been kidnapped after three days.

I asked, ‘Was he a good writer?’

‘Oh no,’ said Sibylla, ‘He’s a lousy writer, he goes to all these amazing places and sees tumbledown cottages and ragged urchins and girls with coltlike grace. But what a terrible thing to happen.’

Suddenly I had an idea.

Only time will tell.

21 September

1 × 11 × 11

11 × 11 = (10 × 11) + (1 × 11) = 121

111 × 111 = (100 × 111) + (10 × 111) + (1 × 111) = 12321

1111 × 1111 = (1000 × 1111) + (100 × 1111) + (10 × 1111) +

(1 × 1111) = 1234321

11111 × 11111 × 123454321

111111 × 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 × 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 × 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 × 111111111 = 12345678987654321

22 September

11 × 11 = 121

11 × 111 = 1221

11 × 1111 = 12221

11 × 11111 = 122221

23 September

111 × 111 = 12321

111 × 1111 = 123321

111 × 11111 = 1233321

111 × 111111 = 12333321

1111 × 1111 = 1234321

1111 × 11111 = 12344321

11111 × 111111 = 1234554321

111111 × 1111111 = 123456654321

1111111 × 11111111 = 12345677654321

24 September

111111111 × 11 = 1222222221

111111111 × 111 = 12333333321

111111111 × 1111 = 123444444321

111111111 × 11111 = 1234555554321

111111111 × 111111 = 12345666654321

111111111 × 1111111 = 123456777654321

111111111 × 11111111 = 1234567887654321

111111111 × 111111111 = 12345678987654321

MY THIRD WEEK AT SCHOOL

27 September

Today as soon as I got into class Miss Lewis took me to one side and said, ‘Stephen, I want you to make a real effort to be a cooperative member of the class.’

I said it was hardly necessary to remind me of this as Dr. Bandura had underlined the importance of cooperative behaviour. Miss Lewis said, ‘Good.’

28 September

Today when I got to school Miss Lewis said it was important for people to do their own work and what was she to think when she found that five other children had 111 × 111 and 1111 × 1111 and 11111 × 11111 on their addition sheets. I said they would appear to have used the distributive principle of multiplication. Miss Lewis said I must understand that it was important for people to work at their own rate. I said I did understand. Miss Lewis said, ‘Good.’

I worked out that I have spent 12 days in school which is 84 hours so I could have read 8400 lines of the Odyssey. I could have read Herodotus or ad Nicoclem or Cyropaedia and Memorials of Socrates. I could have finished Algebra Made Easy. I could have started Calculus Made Easy. I could have mastered all the Japanese characters thoroughly.

The thing that is worrying me is that J. S. Mill did not go to school. He was taught by his father and that was why he was 25 years ahead of everybody else.

I decided to take the Argonautica to school.

29 September

Today I took the Argonautica to school. Miss Lewis took it away and made me take it home again at the end of the day.

30 September

Today I could have read Book 2 of the Argonautica.

1 October

Today I could have read Book 3 of the Argonautica.

2 October