`` I 'll be -- whew -- if I do ! '' whistled Ben , stopping an oath just in time . `` It is not polite to whistle in company , '' said Thorny , with great dignity . `` Miss Celia told me to . I 'll say ` confound it , ' if you like that better , '' answered Ben , as a sly smile twinkled in his eyes . `` Oh , I see ! She 's told you about it ? Well , then , if you want to please her , you 'll learn a hymn right off . Come , now , she wants me to be clever to you , and I 'd like to do it ; but if you get peppery , how can I ? '' Thorny spoke in a hearty , blunt way , which suited Ben much better than the other , and he responded pleasantly , -- `` If you wo n't be grand I wo n't be peppery . Nobody is going to boss me but Miss Celia ; so I 'll learn hymns if she wants me to . '' '' ` In the soft season of thy youth ' is a good one to begin with . I learned it when I was six . Nice thing ; better have it . '' And Thorny offered the book like a patriarch addressing an infant . Ben surveyed the yellow page with small favor , for the long s in the old-fashioned printing bewildered him ; and when he came to the last two lines , he could not resist reading them wrong , -- `` The earth affords no lovelier fight Than a religious youth . '' `` I do n't believe I could ever get that into my head straight . Have n't you got a plain one any where round ? '' he asked , turning over the leaves with some anxiety . `` Look at the end , and see if there is n't a piece of poetry pasted in .
You learn that , and see how funny XXXXX will look when you say it to her .
Ben Celia Thorny end favor fight head hymn infant right