"My! What are _all_ them things?"

"Don't you know what reading is?"

"Yes, I know them first three; but what's the long words?"

"Well, geography is about the earth."

"Earth? What do you mean, dirt?"

"Some--and some water, and some hills, and rivers, and cities, and
mountains."

"But you can see all them things."

"Well, it tells you more than you can see."

"And what's t'other?"

"Arithmetic is about figures. What are you asking me so many questions
for?--didn't you ever go to school?"

"Never did in all my life, not an hour. Now go on about the figures."

"Well, all about them--how to add and multiply, and subtract and divide,
and fractions."

"Never heard of one of 'em," said Tode, with a little sigh. "What be
they all for?"

"Why so you can buy things and sell them, and keep accounts, and
everything."

"Then I ought to know 'em, 'cause that's what I'm doing. Do you know
'em?"

"I'm studying arithmetic, and I'm as far as fractions."

"Will you show 'em to me?"

"Mother," said Winny, turning despairing eyes on the attentive old lady,
"he's such a funny boy. I don't know what to make of him."

"He wants to study and learn, deary, don't you see?"

"I think that's just as nice as can be," she added, turning to Tode.
"Winny, she's a great scholar, keeps to the head of her class all the
time, most, and she studies evenings, and you could get out your book,
and she would show you all about things, couldn't you, deary?"

"I don't care," said Winny, listlessly. "Yes, I might if he wants to
learn, and if he won't bother me too much."

Tode's cheeks were all aglow. He had awakened lately to the fact that
there was a great deal in this world that he didn't understand, that he
wanted to know about; and without a doubt but that this wise-eyed girl
knew it all, and that he should learn it all, and that he should learn
it from her in a little while. He went to work with alacrity.
Examination came first--that is, it came after the dishes were washed.
Then Tode displayed his reading powers, which really _were_ remarkable
when one considered that he could hardly tell himself how he happened to
learn, but which sank into insignificance by the side of Winny's
clear-toned, correct, careful reading. Tode listened in amazement and
delight.

"That sounds just like mine," he said at last, drawing in his breath as
she finished.

In return for which graceful compliment, which had the merit of being an
uncons