little Henry and she manages the house
so well that there isn't a single thing to bother big Henry. But they
say--"

"Stop it, Tommy. You've been listening again to that horrid old Mrs.
Conover. Her husband was a perfect old Scrooge, and now that she's rid
of him, poor dear, she feels that she's got to expand and make up for
lost time----" Her voice, which had become more and more drowsy, as if
bored with what it had to say, trailed off and died. Then, with renewed
interest, she exclaimed, "I wonder what they are going to do about
Poland?"

Tom had learned that an answer to these startling questions and comments
of Mrs. Norris was not required. There was no harm, however, in saying
the first thing that came into one's head, as in a psychological test,
and he accordingly now answered, "Paderewski."

"Yes," said Mrs. Norris quietly. Then brightening up: "How is your work
going, Tommy?"

"Why, it's going pretty well."

"They get rather difficult about this time of year, don't they?"

"They do! Oh my, I've had an awful time with them lately. I've muffed
Carlyle and Transcendentalism completely."

"Oh, no! Why that's Emerson and all those Concord people. Still, I
suppose Louisa Alcott is getting a little old-fashioned."

"You should have seen the set of papers I got back today. There it was,
all that I had given them, in great heavy undigested lumps--"

"Like footballs," suggested Mrs. Norris.

"Once I was funny with them," went on Tom, "and I may say that I was
properly punished. They put it all down in their notebooks and then
mixed it up with everything they shouldn't have mixed it up with--and I
shall never be funny again."

"I shall give you _at least_ two grains----"

"Then there are the young men who get off all the stale old facts and
expect an A. One of them came to me yesterday, when I had given him a C,
and whined around my desk until I finally told him I did not consider
his performance remarkable in a young man of eighteen, however much so
it might be in a poll parrot of the same age."

"Now that was wrong. Were there other boys around?"

"Yes."

"Well, you simply must not go do that kind of thing. They'll hate it."

"I know it was wrong, but I am rather amused by it. As a matter of fact,
I can stand anything but the ones who think they can fool me with a lot
of embroidery and gas. They're insulting----"

"Why, Tommy, you were doing the same thing yourself only three or four
years ago. You