pig learnin' to root, why, I reckon I'll jest hang my head in shame."

"I've lost all patience," the teacher said. "Go home, Ann, and let
mother look at you. Don't come back to-day. I don't want to see you
again. I've lost heart completely. I want to be proud of you and
George, but I'm afraid I never can be. She can't write, Uncle John;
she can't spell the simplest words in three syllables; and as for
using correct grammar and pronunciation--" But Ann was stalking off
without looking back.

Dolly sat down at the table and drew a sheet of paper toward her.
"She's got me all upset," she sighed. "Mr. DeWitt, the new teacher,
has been sending about a test example in arithmetic to see who can
work it. He says he can do it, and one or two other _men_, but that he
never has seen a woman teacher yet who could get the answer. I was
within an inch of the solution when I caught sight of that girl's
face, and it went from me in a flash. Uncle John, if fifteen men own
in common three hundred and eighty-four bushels of wheat, and three
men want to buy sixty-seven and three-fourths of--"

"Oh, Lord--thar you go!" Webb groaned. "Let me tell you some'n',
Dolly. The fool feller that concocted that thing to idle time away
with never hoed a row of corn or planted a potato. Do you know what
that's meant for? It is for no other reason under the shinin' sun than
to make the average parent think teachers know more'n the rest o'
humanity. In the first place, the fifteen common men must be common
shore enough if they couldn't own all told more than that amount o'
wheat in this day and time when even a one-horse farmer can raise--"

"You don't understand," Dolly broke in, with an indulgent smile.