"You must come back to-morrow for something a little heavier," said Mr. Arithmetic. "Addition is simple enough; but Division needs a little greater effort of strength."
"We've done grand things to-day," exclaimed Lubin; "it's time enough to think about to-morrow."
"Oh, I will certainly come back then!" cried Nelly, not a little pleased at her present success.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WONDERFUL BOY.
HAT evening Dick and his dark companion Pride sat in his cottage together. The boy looked out of spirits or out of temper. Perhaps his cut still pained him; perhaps the perpetual patter of the shower which was falling made him gloomy and dull, for a violent rain had come on, which continued during the whole of that night.
"Who would have thought," said Pride, "that lazy Lubin and lame Nelly would have mounted so bravely to the top of Multiplication staircase, and have carried back, safely over Bother, such nice little grates of Addition? You must really look sharp, Dick Desley, or they'll furnish their cottages before you."
"Before me!" exclaimed Dick, with a sneer. "I could do more with my little finger than Lubin with all his fat fist."