“Oh, yes, you are,” said our hero, though he secretly doubted it, and with good reason. There was no doubt that Julius surpassed his friend, not only in energy, but in natural talent.
The boys soon discovered that their new teacher was by no means equal in scholarship to the favorite whom he had superseded. Notwithstanding he had graduated, as he asserted, at one of the most celebrated academies in Maine, he proved to be slow at figures, and very confused in his explanations of mathematical principles. It may be well to let the reader into a little secret. Mr. Slocum had passed a few months at an academy in Maine, without profiting much by his advantages; and, having had very indifferent success in teaching schools of a low grade at home, had come out West by invitation of his uncle, under the mistaken impression that his acquirements, though not appreciated in the East, would give him a commanding position at the West. He was destined to{124} find that the West is as exacting as the East in the matter of scholarship.
Mr. Slocum betrayed his weakness first on the second day. Frank Bent, a member of the first class, went up to him at recess with a sum in complex fractions.
“I don’t quite understand this sum, Mr. Slocum,” he said. “Will you explain it to me?”
“Certainly,” said the teacher, pompously. “I dare say it seems hard to you, but to one who has studied the higher branches of mathematics like I have, it is, I may say, as easy as the multiplication table.”
“You must be very learned, Mr. Slocum,” said Frank, with a grave face, but a humorous twinkle in his eye.
“That isn’t for me to say,” said Mr. Slocum, complacently. “You know the truth shouldn’t be spoken at all times. Ahem! what sum is it that troubles you?”
“This, sir.”
“Yes, I see.”
Mr. Slocum took up the arithmetic, and looked fixedly at the sum with an air of profound wisdom, then turned back to the rule, looked carefully through the specimen example done in the book, and after five minutes remarked: “It is quite easy, that is, for me. Give me your slate.”