Miss Fosbrook called her three times; and at last she turned round
peevishly at being interrupted in the middle of the "Friar of Orders
Gray," and repeated her twenty lines of Cowper's "Winter's Walk" in a
doleful whine, though without a blunder.
It was one of the horrible novelties that Miss Fosbrook was bringing
in, that she expected people to understand their sums as well as work
them. She gave much shorter ones, to be sure, than Mamma, who did
sometimes set a long multiplication sum of such a huge size, that it
looked as if it were meant to keep the victim out of the way; but who
would not prefer casting up any length of figures, to being required
to explain the meaning of "carrying"?
Really, if it had not been for the pig, that shocking question might
have led to a mutiny in the school-room. When it was bad enough to
do the thing, how could anyone ask what was meant by the operation,
and why it was performed?
What did Bessie do when her sum was being overlooked? Miss Fosbrook
read on: "4 from 8, 4; 7 from 1--how's this, Bessie? 7 from 10 are-
-"
"3, and 1 are 4," dolorously, as her 3 was changed.
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