He’s been learned to thess pass over aughts an’ not call their names; and once-t or twice-t, when wife called ’em out that a-way, why, he got so fretted he thess gethered up his things an’ went to another school. But seem like she’s added aughts that a-way so long she can’t think to add ’em no other way.
I notice nights after she’s kept school for Sonny all day she talks consider’ble in her sleep, an’ she says, “Aught’s a aught” about ez often ez she says anything else.
Oh, yas, sir; he’s had consider’ble fusses with his teachers, one way an’ another, but they ever’ one declare they think a heap of ’im.
Sir? Oh, yas, sir; of co’se they all draw their reg’lar pay whether he’s a day in school du’in’ the month or not. That’s right enough, ’cause you see they don’t know what day he’s li’ble to drop in on ’em, an’ it’s worth the money thess a-keepin’ their nerves strung for ’im.
Well, yas, sir; ’t is toler’ble expensive, lookin’ at it one way, but lookin’ at it another, it don’t cost no mo’ ’n what it would to edjercate three child’en, which many poor families have to do—an’ more—which in our united mind Sonny’s worth ’em all.
Yas, sir; ’t is confusin’ to him in some ways, goin’ to all three schools at once-t.
F’ instance, Miss Alviry Sawyer, which she’s a single-handed maiden lady ’bout wife’s age, why, of co’se, she teaches accordin’ to the old rules; an’ in learnin’ the child’en subtraction, f’ instance, she’ll tell ’em, ef they run short to borry one f’om the nex’ lef’ han’ top figur’, an’ pay it back to the feller underneath him.
Well, this didn’t suit Sonny’s sense o’ jestice no way, borryin’ from one an’ payin’ back to somebody else; so he thess up an’ argued about it—told her thet fellers thet borried nickels f’om one another couldn’t pay back that a-way; an’ of co’se she told him they was heap o’ difference ’twix’ money and ’rithmetic——which I wish’t they was more in my experience; an’ so they had it hot and heavy for a while, till at last she explained to him thet that way of doin’ subtraction fetched the answer, which, of co’se, ought to satisfy any school-boy; an’ I reckon Sonny would soon ’a’ settled into that way ’ceptin’ thet he got out o’ patience with that school in sev’al ways, an’ he left an’ went out to Sandy Crik school, and it thess happened that he struck a subtraction class there the day he got in, an’ they was workin’ it the other way—borry one from the top figur’ an’ never pay it back at all, thess count it off (that’s the way I’ve worked my lifelong subtraction, though wife does hers payin’ back), an’ of co’se Sonny was ready to dispute this way, an’ he didn’t have no mo’ tac’ than to th’ow up Miss Alviry’s way to the teacher, which of co’se he wouldn’t stand, particular ez Miss Alviry’s got the biggest school. So they broke up in a row, immejate, and Sonny went right along to Miss Kellog’s school down here at the cross-roads.
She’s a sort o’ reformed teacher, I take it; an’ she gets at her subtraction by a new route altogether—like ez ef the first feller thet had any surplus went sort o’ security for them thet was short, an’ passed the loan down the line. But I noticed he never got his money back, for when they come to him, why, they docked him. I reckon goin’ security is purty much the same in an out o’ books. She passes the borryin’ along some way till it gits to headquarters, an’ writes a new row o’ figur’s over the heads o’ the others. Well, my old brain got so addled watchin’ Sonny work it thet I didn’t seem to know one figur’ f’om another ’fo’ he got thoo; but when I see the answer come, why, I was satisfied. Ef a man can thess git his answers right all his life, why nobody ain’t a-goin’ to pester him about how he worked his figur’s.
I did try to get Sonny to stick to one school for each rule in ’rithmetic, an’ havin’ thess fo’ schools, why he could learn each o’ the fo’ rules by one settled plan. But he won’t promise nothin’. He’ll quit for lessons one week, and maybe next week somethin’ else’ll decide him. (He’s quit ever’ one of ’em in turn when they come to long division.) He went thoo a whole week o’ disagreeable lessons once-t at one school ’cause he was watchin’ a bird-nest on the way to that school. He was determined them young birds was to be allowed to leave that nest without bein’ pestered, an’ they stayed so long they purty nigh run him into long division ’fo’ they did fly. Ef he’d ’a’ missed school one day he knowed two sneaky chaps thet would ’a’ robbed that nest, either goin’ or comin’.