"
The three fingers shot up at once and waved at me, but I pretended not to
see them and turned to my guest.
"I said, Perry, that you were not quite so great a speaker as
Demosthenes," I stammered. Chester Holmes had three fingers up and Ira
Snarkle was waving both hands, but I went calmly on: "They were telling
me how beautifully you recited, and I was trying to instil into the piece
a little of your spirit. But now that we have you here, I insist on your
showing me and the school just how it is done."
Perry frowned fiercely on Lulu Ann Nummler, and the three fingers
disappeared. On me he smiled.
"It's a great pleasure to me to be able to recite," he said. "To be able
to repeat great po-ems at will, is to have a treasure you can allus carry
with you while your voice lasts." All this was to the scholars. "There
are three great arts in this world--singin', hand-paintin', and last but
not least, speakin'. I try my hand at all of them except hand-paintin',
and I wish to impress on all you scholars what a joy it is to oneself and
one's friends to have mastered one of these muses.
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