ebster's elementary spelling-book to get
by heart, for the teacher "skipped about." The children went up and
down, and it was rare fun sometimes. The little girl had been out of the
Baker class a long while. They call it that because the first column
began with that easy word. She was very proud of having gone in the
larger class. Her father gave her a silver dollar with a hole punched
through it, and Steve brought her a blue ribbon for it. She wore it on
state occasions. She studied Peter Parley's geography and knew the
verses beginning:

"The world is round and like a ball,
Seems swinging in the air."

How it could be puzzled her. She asked her father, for she thought he
knew everything. He said he believed it was, but he could never make it
seem so.

Aunt Mary strenuously denied it. "Sta'ns to reason de folks would fall
off w'en it went swirlin' round. De good Lord He knows His business
better'n dat. Jes don't mind any sech foolin', honey! Its clear agin de
Bible dat speaks ob de sun's risin' an' settin', an' de Lord nebber
makes any mistake 'bout dat ar Bible."

The little girl studied her lesson over four times. Then Jim came up and
they had a game of tag. Dave Andrews and Milton Scott sat out under the
old apple-tree smoking their pipes and talking politics. One was a Whig
and the other a Democrat who believed that we had never had a President
worth mentioning since Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory as he was often
called.

When her father came round the corner of the house she stopped running
after Jim and held out both hands to him. Her cheeks were like wild
roses and her eyes shone with pleasure. They sat down on the step, and
he put his arm about her and "cuddled" her up to his side. She told him
she had gone up three in saying seven times in the multiplication table,
and four in spelling "tetrarch." Then when Charley Banks was reading he
said "condig-en" and the class laughed. She also told him she had been
studying about Rhode Island and Roger Williams, and all the bays and
inlets and islands. She made believe comb his hair with her slim little
fingers and once in a while he opened his lips like a trap and caught
them, and they both laughed.

Presently Mrs. Underhill, who sat by the window knitting in the
twilight, said: "'Milyer, that child must go to bed."

She felt she had to issue this mandate two of three times, so she began
early.

They hugged each other and laughed a little. Then he sai