nion told her it made twelve; which piece of information
she received with an--"Oh! of course it does. Dear me, Amy, how silly I
am!"--just as if she had known the fact all her life, and had only
forgotten it at that moment, unaccountably, for the first time! Mrs
Foster then went on to add a variety of other figures to this,--with an
occasional word of assistance from Amy,--until the whole amounted to the
sum of one hundred and thirty-three.

"There," said Mrs Foster, with a pleased expression, as she put the
figures down, "now how many twelves are in that--eh? let me see. Twelve
times twelve are a hundred and forty,--no, that's too much; twelve times
eleven--how much is twelve times eleven?"

Mrs Foster did not ask this of Amy; no, she gazed up at the ceiling,
where an uncommonly large spider was affixing its web,--with the design,
no doubt, of lowering itself down to the tea-table,--and demanded the
solution of the problem, apparently, from that creature.

"I think it is a hundred and thirty-two, mamma," said Amy, pouring out
the tea.

"Oh, _of course_, how stupid!" said Mrs Foster, who was quite struck
with the obviousness of the fact--on being told it. "There now, that
comes to eleven shillings and one penny, which settles the Soup Kitchen.
One pound two does the Hospital for the Blind, and there's one pound
due to the Sailors' Home. But still," continued Mrs Foster, with a
return of the perplexed expression, "that does not get me out of my
difficulty."

"Come to tea, dear," said Amy, "and we will try to clear it up together
afterwards."

"Impossible, child. I could not eat with appetite while this is
puzzling my brain. Let me see; there were fifteen pounds, _apparently_,
spent last year, when I put it on paper, and yet here is a sovereign
over," said Mrs Foster, holding up the coin, and looking at it
reproachfully, as if the blame lay with it and not with herself.

"Well, mamma," said Amy, laughing, "but where is your difficulty?"

"Don't you see, child? by rights I ought to give fifteen pounds away;
well, my book tells me that fifteen pounds _have_ been given, and yet
here is a sovereign left over to give!"

"Then don't give it, mamma, just put it back into your purse, and that
will make the thing right, won't it?"

"No, dear, it won't, because, you see, the money _must_ be right, so the
book _must_ be wrong; oh! here it is. I declare I have forgot to carry
_one_. There, that's right. Now, de