Читать книгу The Brother of a Hero онлайн

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Rodney had an interest in life, however. He liked to learn things, all sorts of things; mathematics even. History had no terrors for him. He could even find reasons to remember dates. Latin he liked immensely, and Greek he found absolutely romantic, although, what Greek he knew he had picked up almost unaided. Modern languages—well, a fellow had to know French and German, of course, but Rodney was less enthusiastic about them. Geography, physics, even botany—all was grist that came to his mill. This love of learning he had inherited from his father. Mr. Merrill had started in life as a farmer’s boy, and by sheer passion for learning things had climbed up and up until to-day at forty-five he was the actual if not yet the official head of one of the biggest railroad systems of the country. Of Mr. Merrill’s five children, two boys and three daughters, only Rodney had succeeded to his father’s thirst for knowledge. Stanley was smart enough and had managed to do fairly well at his studies both at school and at college, but, to use his own expression, “he was no shark.” Stanley was far more contented in the Omaha office of the railroad than he had been in the classrooms. Perhaps Rodney’s youngest sister, Eleanor, was more like Mr. Merrill than any of the children save Rodney; although aged thirteen, her thirst for knowledge took the form of ceaseless questioning.