“Yes, sir,” with a smile.
“Can you cipher?” “Yes, sir.”
“In multiplication?” “Yes, sir.”
“Long division?”
“Yes, sir; I’ve been half through fractions.”
“You said you’d been to school but three months!” “My father taught me.”
There was just a touch of pride in his voice as he said this—a sense of something superior about his father. This bit of pride angered the master, who liked to be thought to have a monopoly of all the knowledge in the town.
“Where have you been living?”
“In the Indian Reserve, of late; I was born in Cincinnati.”
“I didn’t ask you where you were born. When I ask you a question, answer that and no more.”