eventh of the first book does
not make you chuckle and wag your head; you can bring a substantive in
Virgil back to the verb that has lost it without looking as if you would
like to exhibit them together in the square. But Tommy was thus elated
until he gave way to grief of the most affecting kind. Now he looked
gloomily before him as if all was over, now he buried his face in his
hands, next his eyes were closed as if in prayer. All this the Dominie
stood from him, but when at last he began to blubber--

At the blackboard was an arithmetic class, slates in hand, each member
adding up aloud in turn a row of figures. By and by it was known that
Cathro had ceased to listen. "Go on," his voice rather than himself
said, and he accepted Mary Dundas's trembling assertion that four and
seven make ten. Such was the faith in Cathro that even boys who could
add promptly turned their eleven into ten, and he did not catch them at
it. So obviously was his mind as well as his gaze on, something beyond,
that Sandy Riach, a wit who had been waiting his chance for years,
snapped at it now, and roared "Ten and eleven, nineteen" ("Go on," said
Cathro), "and four, twenty," gasped Sandy, "and eight, sixteen," he
added, gaining courage. "Very good," nmrmured the Dominie, whereupon
Sandy clenched his reputation forever by saying, in one glorious
mouthful, "and six, eleven, and two, five, and one, nocht."

There was no laughing at it then (though Sandy held a levee in the
evening), they were all so stricken with amazement. By one movement they
swung round to see what had fascinated Cathro, and the other classes
doing likewise, Tommy became suddenly the centre of observation. Big
tears were slinking down his face, and falling on some sheets of paper,
which emotion prevented his concealing. Anon the unusual stillness in
the school made him look up, but he was dazed, like one uncertain of his
whereabouts, and he blinked rapidly to clear his eyes, as a bird shakes
water from its wings.

Mr. Cathro first uttered what was afterward described as a kind of
throttled skirl, and then he roared "Come here!" whereupon Tommy stepped
forward heavily, and tried, as commanded, to come to his senses, but it
was not easy to make so long a journey in a moment, and several times,
as he seemed about to conquer his fears, a wave of feeling set them
flowing again.

"Take your time," said Mr. Cathro, grimly, "I can wait," and this had
such a helpful effect that T