THE NEXT MORNING, my mother drove me to school. Together we went to Mr. Horne’s office. Mrs. Barber and Matthew were already there. Mr. Horne talked at some length about how proud he was of Matthew and me, but after he said that both of us would be moving up to the fourth grade I was so intoxicated by the news that I missed a lot of what followed. I did, however, recover in time to hear what Mr. Horne read from Mr. Grundtvig’s report, which had been the deciding factor.
Of Matthew, Mr. Grundtvig had written: “One is struck at first by his attitude of blank despondency, his apparently chronic melancholia, but one is delightfully surprised to find that this somber little fellow actually has a lively imagination and a well-developed comic sense.”
Of me, he had written: “Although on the surface he appears to be unbelievably naive, with only the most frivolous and trivial thoughts, one discovers upon closer inspection that he has depth, that he harbors a profound understanding of the absurdity, the pain, and the misery of modern life.”
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