Why not divide----"

"Go away. That snowball plop against the pane spoiled my best sentence.
This is due in forty minutes. I've written up my family and friends and
books and pictures, my summer vacations--a sunset at a time, my
little----"

"Why not divide everybody, I say----"

"----dog at home," I continued placidly. "I've composed themes about the
orchard, the woods, the table-fare, the climate, the kitten I never
owned, the thoughts I never had. To-day I was in despair for a subject
till I happened to borrow one of your cookies and----"

"You did! My precious cookies! Burglar!"

"----bite it into scallops. Ha! an idea! I arranged myself on the rug
with much care in order that I might stretch out the process to a whole
page of narration. Thereupon I nibbled off the corners of the scallops
till the cookie was round and smooth again. Next I bit it into scallops
and then I nibbled off the corners; and next I bit and then I nibbled;
and next I bit and then I nibbled; and next I bit----"

"You did! Oh, I wish I----"

"----and then I nibbled; and next I bit and then I nibbled, till there
was nothing left but the hole. Now I am writing a scintillating and
corruscating theme about it. Go away."

Berta turned toward the door. "Some day you'll wish you had listened,"
she declared in accents heavy with gloom, "some day when you can't think
of a single thing to write about, and the hand keeps moving around the
clock, and the paper lies there blank and horrible before your vacant
eyes, and your pen is nibbled so short that your fingers----"

"I didn't mean go away," I said, "I meant, go on. Tell me about it."

"Nay, nay! To lacerate my feelings, spurn my proffered aid, insult my
youthful pristine zeal, and then to call me back--in short, to throw a
dog a bone! Nay, nay!"

"Oh, Berta, be sweet. Tell me. You know that I think you have the most
original ideas in college." After I had coaxed her quite a lot, she told
me her new scheme. It was something like advanced character reading and
biology combined. Just as scientists classify trees and plants in botany,
Berta proposed that we should divide the students into different classes
according to their manners.

"It will be so improving and instructive too," she pleaded, "we'll be
paragons of politeness before we finish them all. We'll be so particular
about our highest class that we will notice every little thing and thus
take warning." She paused a moment; then, "Did