THE OLD SLATE.
“I have a great mind to break this stupid old slate,” said little Charlie Fidget, one morning, as he sat over his first sum in subtraction.
“Why, what has the poor slate done?” asked the pleasant voice of his sister Helen, behind him.
“Nothing; just what I complain of; it won’t do this plaguy sum for me; and here it is almost school-time!”
“What a wicked slate, Charles!”
“So it is. I mean to fling it out of the window and break it to pieces on the stones.”
“Will that do your sum, Charlie?”