"I wish I could read as well as that," said Bert. "How awfully you must have studied when you were a girl."
"Not so hard as you think for, perhaps," said her teacher, smiling. "Success depends more upon a series of small efforts, than any great one."
"Do you think I shall ever read well?" asked Bert doubtfully.
"I am sure you will, if you will give a moderate amount of attention. Do you know anything of arithmetic?"
"Do you mean the Multiplication Table?"
"Yes, that is a part of it."
"Yes," said Bert, "I know some lines about it. Charlie Morrill taught me them one day."
"What are they?"
Bert repeated these lines, which no doubt are familiar to many of my readers: