"After lessons are over, I should."
So, with a sigh, Dreamikins tried to apply herself to her sum when the five minutes were up. It was the only lesson she disliked. Freda and Daffy did their sums in pencil in an exercise-book; Dreamikins made such a mess of her figures that she had to use a slate.
She tried hard to add up her figures, but when she brought them to Miss Fletcher they were all wrong, and angry tears rose in Dreamikins' eyes.
"It must be Satan who jumbles them up, and you won't let Er have nuffin to do with me, and so I've nobody to help me."
Then Miss Fletcher patiently made her stand by her side and count out loud, and in a very short time the sum was done and Dreamikins was happy again.
"Why need we do sums?" she asked.
"Because when you grow up you may have a good deal of money to spend, and if you don't want to waste it you must keep accounts, and put down what you spend; and when you do that, you have to add and subtract and do all the sums I am trying to teach you now."
"When I grow up," said Dreamikins, her eyes gleaming, "I shan't do nuffin that grown-ups gene'lly does. I shall have a airship, and go right away from the world for days and days, and go and see what the moon is like inside, and the stars, and p'raps, if God will let me, I shall climb as near to heaven as I possibly can, just to hear the harps and the singing. And then—"
"You must do some dictation now," said Miss Fletcher gently.
Poor Dreamikins! She was so quick in soaring away, and so quickly brought back to earth again!