“Why don’t you hold entrance examinations, Twaddles?” said Mother Blossom, after she had thought while the twins watched her anxiously. “Play that Dot wants to come to college and you must try her out and see if she knows enough to come into your class. You might read aloud for him, Dot, and pretend that he is a professor of English.”
So Twaddles and Dot ran up to the playroom and got out all the toys without which they thought they couldn’t play school. Twaddles put on the big spectacles that had no glasses in them—which were among his choicest possessions—and Dot sat down to read to him.
Neither child could read, though they knew their alphabet fairly well. But Dot had an excellent memory and knew many stories that had been read aloud to her, and now she opened a book and pretended to be reading from it to Twaddles.
“Begin,” said the professor kindly.
“Once upon a time,” read Dot, “there was the nicest girl you ever saw. Her name was Cinderella. Her sisters were so mean to her she said ‘I won’t stay with you any more’ and she ran away. They wouldn’t let her go skating with them,” added Dot, glancing up from her book at Professor Twaddles, who nodded to show he understood.
“Cinderella went on a ship across the ocean,” continued Dot, “and the ship was wrecked in the middle of the ocean and the wind blew her ashore. While she was blowing through the air she saw another person in the water and he was Robinson Crusoe. ‘Catch hold of my sash,’ said Cinderella, ‘and I will pull you ashore.’ And he did, and they both landed on a desert island,” and now Dot stopped to get her breath and see what effect the story was having on the professor. He was staring at her through his glasses in amazement.
“Aren’t you mixing Cinderella up with another story?” he asked doubtfully.
“That’s all right,” Dot answered airily. “I like different stories. Besides,” she added, “I’m reading to you from the book.”
“Oh!” said the professor. “Excuse me; go on.”
“As soon as Cinderella and Robinson Crusoe found they were on an island,” went on Dot, “they thought they would look around and see if anyone lived there they knew. They went to all the houses and rang the doorbells——”