* * *
An inspector called to-day; a middle-aged kindly gentleman with a sharp eye. His chief interest in life was tables.
"How many pence in fifty-seven farthings?" he fired at my highest class. When he found that they had to divide mentally by four, he became annoyed.
"They ought to know their tables," he said to me.
"What tables?" I asked.
"O, they should learn up that; why I can tell you at once what sixty-nine farthings are."
I explained humbly that I couldn't, and should never acquire the skill.
I did not like his manner of talking at the teacher through the class. When an inspector says, "You ought to know this," the scholars glance at the teacher, for they are shrewd enough to see that the teacher is being condemned.
He fired his parting shot as he went out.