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October 20, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIAN
been punished for things he had done, and had told
the truth about it, when it seemed almost as if he
would not have been punished if he could only have
told a lie about it. But still he knew how his father
and mother felt about it, and so he did his best to tell
things just as they were.
But figures must be strange things if they never told
a lie. Perhaps they were real and alive, like himself,
and had to do things sometimes that were hard and
that they did not like to do. At any rate, he thought
about it a good deal.
The spring examinations came in March. Roy knew
it weeks ahead, and he knew, too, that he ought to be
reviewing the work he had gone over; but it was just
marble-time then, and it was hard to stay indoors and
study when everybody else was out playing marbles.
The examination in number work seemed to Roy
easier than he had thought it would be. He did all of
the first six examples, and was pretty sure he had got
them right. But the seventh was a hard one. He
worked and worked on it, and still he could not do it,
so he skipped that and did the others, and then went
back. He tried and tried again, but it would not
come out right.
Then, when he was very tired, he looked up just as
Peter Greenwood asked to leave his seat for a drink
of water. Peter left his paper on his desk, and although
Roy did not intend to look, he could not help
seeing some of the examples. Number seven was right
before his eyes, and where Roy had the figure eight,
Peter had a nine.
Roy went over his own work again and saw that
it ought to be a nine, so, without thinking much more
about it, he changed his own work and put down the
nine where he had had the eight.
Being in a hurry, he did not make a very good nine.
It was hunchbacked and stooped over,with a big head,
that seemed to be hanging down. But he turned in his
paper, and hurried out and played marbles till dark.
After supper that eveninp he hepan tn think aKnut
. . O O
the examples again, and he remembered the figure nine
that he had put down in place of the eight. He remembered
how it looked?how it was bent over, and
how it hung its head, as if it was ashamed of something.
He kept thinking about it, and even after he
had gone to bed the figure stood there before his eyes,
looking mean and sorry.
The more he thoifght about it the more it seemed
to him that he had made the figure lie, when it did not
want to, and had not meant to. That was why it
looked so mean and ashamed.
The first thing the next morning Roy went straight
to his teacher. "Please, may I change one of the answers
in my examination-paper?" he asked.
"Why, my dear boy," she said, "I couldn't let you
do that. It wouldn't be fair. 11 you have looked up
the answer OUt of school von mtiit not rhanor<? it nnur
That would not be right."
"Oh, yes'm, it would, because one of my figures
lied," said Roy, eagerly. "He didn't mean to, but I
made him; but I didn't mean to, either."
"Why. child, what do you mean?"
Then Roy told the teacher all about it; how he had
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not got the right answer himself, and how he had seen
Peter's paper, and put down the figures he had seen
there.
The teacher laughed and hugged Roy the way his
mother did sometimes. Then she took out his examination-paper,
and where the poor, mean-looking
figure nine had stood she put a great big eight that
stood up so straight and looked so strong and honest
that anybody could see at a glance that he was telling
the truth, no matter if he had made a mistake.
And now Roy knows that if figures ever lie it is
not because they want to, but because some one else .
makes them.?Selected.
HISTORY AT THE DISTRICT SCHOOL.
The new teacher glanced smilingly over the school,
and was delighted to see so many bright young faces
among her new charges. "Now, children," she said,
opening her history book, "we will run over our history,
so that I may find out what you know. Willie
Perkins, you may tell me why Washington crossed
over the Delaware."
"Ahum?er?why, now, er?ahum," began Willie;
"why, becuz?"
"Because what, dear?" asked the teacher.
"Becuz he couldn't go under it," said Willie.
"Dear me, Willie, what an answer!" ejaculated the
teacher. "Polly Hicks, you look like a bright little
girl. Why did the Father of his Country cross the
Delaware ?"
"Pleathe, mim," replied Polly, "I gueth it wath becuth
the Hudthon wath too far away for him to croth
that."
"Mercy!" cried the teacher. "Really, you will all
have to stay in this afternoon and study your history.
I will now test you on arithmetic. Maggie Wilkins, if
I were to divide three bananas among seventeen boys,
wnat would be the result?"
"A riot," said Maggie, speaking up like a little drum
major.
"Possibly," said the teacher; "but that is not what
I mean. Tommy, you may take the question. Three
bananas among three boys?that would be one banana
apiece for each boy. Now, three bananas among seventeen
boys would be what?"
"Three bananas, mim," answered Tommy.
"I know, but three into seventeen is"?said the
teacher.
"Three bananas would go into seventeen boys once
aim none over, said tommy confidently.
It was then that the new teacher resigned.?Harper's
Weekly.
Johnny came home the other night in high glee,
wearing the arithmetic medal. ,
"What ig that for?" asked his mother.
"That's the prize for doing examples," said Johnny.
"I did this one: 'If our new baby weighs eleven and a
half pounds, and gains an ounce each day'?'cause
you told Mr. Smith she did yesterday?'how much
will she weigh when she's twenty years oldr And
the answer was, four hundred and sixty-six pounds.
And the teacher said I earned the prize."