She is fifteen and should have known better, but the people of our valley
are dreadfully frank sometimes, and this girl spoke in the clear, sharp
voice of truth that cut through one. Perry turned quick as a flash and
eyed me.

For a moment all I could do was to thump the floor and cry "Order!
Silence! Lulu Ann Nummler, when you want to speak, you must hold up
three fingers."

The three fingers shot up at once and waved at me, but I pretended not to
see them and turned to my guest.

"I said, Perry, that you were not quite so great a speaker as
Demosthenes," I stammered. Chester Holmes had three fingers up and Ira
Snarkle was waving both hands, but I went calmly on: "They were telling
me how beautifully you recited, and I was trying to instil into the piece
a little of your spirit. But now that we have you here, I insist on your
showing me and the school just how it is done."

Perry frowned fiercely on Lulu Ann Nummler, and the three fingers
disappeared. On me he smiled.

"It's a great pleasure to me to be able to recite," he said. "To be able
to repeat great po-ems at will, is to have a treasure you can allus carry
with you while your voice lasts." All this was to the scholars. "There
are three great arts in this world--singin', hand-paintin', and last but
not least, speakin'. I try my hand at all of them except hand-paintin',
and I wish to impress on all you scholars what a joy it is to oneself and
one's friends to have mastered one of these muses. Singin' and speakin'
are closely allied, startin' from the same source. And hand-painting it