novel as it was.

"Now what the teacher sent me to look up in that book," went on Carl,
"was some old foreign treaty. Of course I read it over because she made
me. But do I remember a line of it? Nix! I told her what the book said
as fast as I could, so to get it off my soul before I forgot it. I
don't see what she cared about it for anyway, for it didn't seem to
hitch up to anything. But this spinning business hitched right up to
Uncle Frederick, Hal Harling and what we've been talking about. I don't
see why Miss Dewey couldn't have let me alone to learn about that."

"Probably she didn't dream you were interested in it," said Mary. "How
should she, pray?"

"I know it. I suppose she didn't," answered Carl with fairness. "She
certainly is no mind reader; and I didn't mention it."

"Then don't go blaming poor Miss Dewey," Mary retorted. "Besides, what
kind of a school would she have if every child in it refused to learn
anything but what he cared about. She would have fifty kids all going
fifty different ways."

Carl sighed. Plainly the flaws of the educational system were too many
for him. Nevertheless he attempted a modest defense of his theory.

"No, she wouldn't," contradicted he. "Some of 'em don't want to learn
anything anyhow, and since they have to they are as well pleased to
learn one thing as another. Billie Tarbox, for instance, hasn't any
preferences; he just hates all highbrow stuff alike. And the Murphys
and Jack Sullivan wouldn't care a hurrah what they learned. All Jack
wants to do when he grows up is to run a steam roller and if he can do
that he'll be perfectly satisfied."

"But he'll have to learn something before he can," observed Mrs.
McGregor.

"No, he won't, Ma. Mike Finnerty who lives in his block runs one and he
doesn't know a thing," Carl replied simply.

"On the contrary, I think you'll find Mr. Michael Finnerty knows much
more than you give him credit for," retorted Mrs. McGregor. "He
probably knows more than he himself realizes. He may not have learned
about engines out of books; but if not he has learned about them from
actual contact with them. All learning does not come from between book
covers, sonny. Experience is a wonderful teacher. Books simply give us
the same result without making us stumble along to learn everything
ourselves. They are somebody else's experience done up in a little
bundle and handed to us as a shorter cut. Mr. Michael Finnerty has had
to take the long w