Emmy Lou paused, uncertain. Had he said one thousand, eight hundred and nine, she would have known; that was the way one knew it in the Second Reader, but eighteen hundred was confusing.
Again Mr. Bryan looked around, to see the chubby little girl standing on her toes, chalk in hand, still uncertain. Mr. Bryan’s voice expressed tried but laudable patience.
“Put it down—the date,” said Mr. Bryan, “eighteen hundred and nine.”
Emmy Lou put it down. She put it down in this way:
| 18 |
| 100 |
| 9 |
Then it was he was astonished, appalled, chagrined; then it was he found it would be necessary to come even oftener to the Third Reader to ground it in the rudiments of number.
But he did not always go when the lesson ended. Directly following its work in the “New Eclectic Practical and Mental Primary Arithmetic,” the class was given over to mastering “Townsend’s New System of Drawing.”
“And she, like Mr. Townsend, had her system.”