“We might go and take lessons from Mother Hubbard, and then perhaps she’d like us better,” said Arthur. “I say, Miss Bradford, what school did you learn your manners in, that you don’t speak when you’re spoken to?”
Bessie remained silent again.
“Do you hear?” shouted Arthur.
“Once I heard of a school where they only paid two cents for learning manners,” said Bessie, demurely.
“What then?” asked Arthur.
“I should think that was the kind of a school you had been to,” answered Bessie.
“And why, I’d like to know?”
“’Cause I shouldn’t think they could teach much manners for two cents.”
Arthur was a clever boy with a quick sense of humor; and he was so struck with what he considered the wit and smartness of the retort, that he forgot to be angry, and, instead of making a sharp answer, broke out into a hearty laugh.
“Pretty good that!” he said. “You’ll do yet.”