Upon one occasion, Miss Gilman, thinking to make a little problem clear by using names of well known objects asked, "If I had five pears and gave you two, Prue, how many would that leave?"
"'Twouldn't be half," said Prue, "so 'twouldn't be fair."
At another time Prue was much interested in a little picture in her arithmetic which represented a man walking beside a horse and cart.
"If it takes a horse two hours to drag a load of stones to town," said Miss Gilman, "how long—"
"But," interrupted Prue, "if it took the horse as long as that, why didn't the man hitch on another horse?"
Laughter greeted this original solving of the problem by practical little Prue, and Miss Gilman decided that examples expressed in ordinary numbers would be far better for this little girl who found an odd question for every pictured problem.
Thus the days passed. The Sundays spent at the old meeting-house, and the week-days filled with work at home and at school, with a running accompaniment of gossip filling the spaces.
But one morning something occurred which filled the scholars with excitement, and aroused the interest or curiosity of nearly every one in the village.
Randy Weston had received a letter from Boston, and such a letter, too!