Aristotle and couldn't bear to hear the great man accused of error.

She started baiting Jimmy with loaded questions and stopped when
Jimmy stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the invention
of canned food, the adoption of the metric system, and the development
of the semaphore telegraph. This stopped all proceedings until Jimmy
himself found the references in the Britannica. That little feat of
research-reference impressed the visiting superintendent. Jimmy Holden
was jumped into Third Grade.

Convinced that he was on the right trolley, Jimmy proceeded to plunge in
with both feet. Third Grade Teacher helped. Within a week he was being
called upon to aid the laggards. He stood out like a lighthouse; he was
the one who could supply the right answers when the class was stumped.
His teacher soon began to take a delight in belaboring the class for a
minute before turning to Jimmy for the answer. Heaven forgive him, Jimmy
enjoyed it. He began to hold back slyly, like a comedian building up the
tension before a punch-line.

His classmates began to call him "old know-it-all." Jimmy did not realize
that it was their resentment speaking. He accepted it as deference to his
superior knowledge. The fact that he was not a part of their playtime
life did not bother him one iota. He knew very well that his size alone
would cut him out of the rough and heavy games of his classmates; he did
not know that he was cut out of their games because they disliked him.

As time wore on, some of the rougher ones changed his nickname from
"know-it-all" to "teacher's pet"; one of them used rougher language
still. To this Jimmy replied in terms he'd learned from Jake Caslow's
gutters. All that saved him from a beating was his size; even the ones