“Whew!” whistled Val. “What an ignoramus you must be! Did you ever study algebra?”
“Never.”
“Nor geometry?”
“I saw the word in a newspaper, once,” said Bar, “but I don’t know what it means.”
“Then won’t you have a high old time with Dr. Dryer, that’s all,” exclaimed Val. “Can’t you read?”
“Oh, yes,” said Bar, eager to come up in something; “I can read and write, and all that. Let me show you.”
Bar took up a pen, but, before he had written a half dozen lines, Val stopped him with:
“There, now, that’ll do. You can beat me all hollow with a pen. Pity you don’t know French, or something.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Bar, “I can talk French, and German, too, and a little Spanish. It’s easy enough to pick up such things. What I don’t know is what you learn at school.”
“Well,” replied Val, “I wish I could pick up as much as that. Anyhow, I s’pose there’s lots of things I can teach you. Did you ever go fishing?”