Thus was his faith in Providence never shaken like that of some boys, who expect the Deity to follow their lead.

Still, by declining to praise his Maker at extraordinary length, except in acknowledgment of services rendered, Solomon gave early evidence of his failure to inherit his father's business incapacity.
On days when things at the school went well, no one gabbled through the weary Prayer-book more conscientiously than he; he said all the things in large type and all the funny little bits in small type, and even some passages without vowels.

Nay, he included the very preface, and was lured on and coaxed on and enticed by his father to recite the appendices, which shot up one after the other on the devotional horizon like the endless-seeming terraces of a deceptive ascent; just another little bit, and now that little bit, and just that last bit, and one more very last little bit.

It was like the infinite inclusiveness of a Chinese sphere, or the farewell performances of a distinguished singer.
For the rest, Solomon was a _Chine-ponim_, or droll, having that inextinguishable sense of humor which has made the saints of the Jewish Church human, has lit up dry technical Talmudic, discussions with flashes of freakish fun, with pun and jest and merry quibble, and has helped the race to survive (_pace_ Dr.Wallace) by dint of a humorous acquiescence in the inevitable.
His _Chine_ helped Solomon to survive synagogue, where the only drop of sweetness was in the beaker of wine for the sanctification service.
Solomon was always in the van of the brave boys who volunteered to take part in the ceremonial quaffing of it.Decidedly.Solomon was not spiritual, he would not even kiss a Hebrew Pentateuch that he had dropped, unless his father was looking, and but for the personal supervision of the _Bube_ the dirty white fringes of his "four-corners" might have got tangled and irredeemably invalidated for all he cared.
In the direst need of the Ansells Solomon held his curly head high among his school-fellows, and never lacked personal possessions, though they were not negotiable at the pawnbroker's.

He had a peep-show, made out of an old cocoa box, and representing the sortie from Plevna, a permit to view being obtainable for a fragment of slate pencil.