“No, Lucy,” replied Royal; “mother said, if I would teach you to add little sums in arithmetic, without any carrying, she would give us a paint-box.”
“Give who a paint-box?” said Lucy.
“Why, you and me,” replied Royal.
“Well,” said Lucy, “then you may teach me.”
Accordingly Lucy went and sat down by Royal upon the sofa, to take her first lesson then, as they were both in haste to get the paint-box. Royal set Lucy a sum; but, on looking at it after he had set it, he rubbed it out, and set another. This also he rubbed out. At length Lucy said,—
“Why, Royal, what makes you rub them all out?”
“Because,” said Royal, “there’s carrying in them.”
“I don’t know what you mean by carrying,” said Lucy.
Royal attempted to explain it to her, but she could not understand. He told her that, when she added up a column, and the amount was in two figures, she must carry one of them. But Lucy could not understand at all. She did not know what he meant by a “column,” or an “amount,” or by any thing being “in two figures.” In the mean time, Miss Anne, who had seated herself at the window, with her sewing, went on quietly attending to her work, until at length the conversation between Royal and Lucy came to be almost a dispute; and she said,—
“Royal, I thought you were not going to teach Lucy carrying; but only sums that had no carrying in them.”