Mrs. Crumpet agreed to wait, while Miss Bixby went for the books.
"Where's that copy of 'Thelma'? I put it down here. Oh, you have it, Mr. Edwards! Well, you had better let me take it; I'm sure it is too frivolous for you serious-minded librarians to read. I'll sit here and look it over until she comes back with those books."
She took it, interest gauge and all, and sat down.
Miss Larkin came into the room just then and asked me to come over to the children's department.
"I want to show you," she said, "what an interest these children take in serious reading and non-fiction. It is most encouraging."
When we arrived at the children's room she had two or three small persons arranged about the desks.
"Now, Willie," she said, "which do you like best, story-books or nature books?"
Willie answered with great promptness: "Nacher books."
The others all confessed to an extraordinary fondness for "hist'ry" or "biography" or "nacher."