"That is my idea exactly," continued Charlie. "If I knew I should ever go into a store, or be a town officer, I should want to study it."
"According to the teacher's ideas, you will need it if you are nothing more than a wood-sawyer's clerk," said John.
"I didn't quite believe all the teacher said about writing letters," added Nat. "I have heard father say that grammar was not studied at all when he went to school, and that it has been introduced into school quite recently. Now I would like to know if people did not understand how to write letters in those days. Couldn't Washington and Jefferson, and other great men, write letters correctly?"
"I never thought of that," said Charlie. "I would ask the teacher, if I were in your place, to-morrow."
"For one," said John, "I should be willing to run my risk, if I could get rid of studying it. I can't make much out of it."
"I have no doubt," added Nat, "that it is a good study for those who will want to use it; but I(?) shall never want to use it, and it is better for me to study something else. Arithmetic is useful to everybody, if they never buy any thing but meat out of a butcher's cart."
By this time they had reached the pond, so that the subject of grammar was dropped, and skating taken up.
"I suppose you will bear off the palm as usual, Nat," said Frank, while he was putting on his skates.
"I don't know about that," replied Nat; "if a fellow can't skate some on this glare ice, he better give his skates to somebody who can."
Frank's remark was drawn out by the fact that Nat was already considered the best skater in the village. He could skate more rapidly, and perform more feats on his skates than any one else. His ability had been fully tested again and again; and by this time there seemed to be a sort of expectation among the boys that he would be "first best" in whatever he undertook. For this reason they hardly attempted to compete with him, but yielded the first place to him as a matter of course.