Several little hands went up, but "Dodd's" was not among them. Miss
Stone noticed this and was "riled" a little, for she had tried doubly
hard to do well, just because this tow-head was in the class, and now
to have the little scamp repudiate it all was too bad.

She called on one and another of the children to point, now to the real
girl, now to the picture girl, now to the word girl, and all went very
nicely, till finally she asked "Dodd" to take the pointer and see what
he could do. But the boy made no motion to obey. Gently she urged him
to try, but he hung his head and would not budge.

"Why don't you want to try, 'Dodd?'" asked the lady, bending down over
the child.

O fatal question! Quick as thought the lad replied, as he raised his
head:

"Coz, I've knowed that always!"

It is not the intention of this chronicle to pass judgment upon any
system of teaching children to read. This record does not concern
itself with one system nor another. But in the evolution of "Dodd,"
Miss Stone used the word-method of the charts, as before stated, and
using it just as she did, she failed to reach the boy as she hoped to,
and her failure was very unfortunate for the child. She was aware of
this, but she had not strength enough, in her own right, to change the
result.

So it was that day after day went by, and the antagonism between