at Ernest from behind her g'ography his
heart went like its spring had broke. Yet he never showed it. It
would have been ruination for him to let it be known by sign or act
that Pinky Binn was other than the general class of weemen; for is
there anything worse than weemen in general? It's the exceptions,
allus the exceptions, raises trouble with a man. Pinky Binn was
Ernest's exception. But the time of his great trial come, and he was
true. He stepped forth in his right light before all the school; he
showed himself what he was--the gentle lover, the masterful fighter,
the heroic-est scholar Six Stars school had ever seen."

[Illustration: "Her name was Pinky Binn, a dotter of the house of Binn,
the Binns of Turkey Walley."]

"He whipped the teacher, I know," cried Henry Holmes. "I told you,
Ike--he licked the teacher."

"This here is a fairy story, Henery," returned Isaac reprovingly.

"Even in a fairy story it 'ud be ridiculous to let a boy of fifteen
beat a trained teacher," said Josiah Nummler. "He didn't quite, and it
come this way. Leander asked Pinky Binn if he had eleven apples and
multiplied them by five how many was they left. She says sixty-five.
'Figure it out agin,' he says, wery stern. So she works her fingers
and her lips a-while, like she was deef and dumb. 'Five-timsone is
five,' she says, 'and five-timsone agin is five and one to carry is
six--sixty-five,' she says. 'Well, I'll be Scotch-Irished,' says
Leander gittin' wery angry. 'Sech obtusety' (Leander allus used fancy
words) 'is worthy of Ernest yander.' He pinted his long finger at
Ernest and says, 'How much is five times eleven apples? Ernest gits up
and faces the teacher, wery ca'am and wery quiet. 'Sixty-five,' says
he. 'It's fifty-five,' Leander shouts. Then says Ernest, wery cool,
'Pinky Binn says it's sixty-five, and Pinky Binn ain't no storyteller,
and you hadn't otter call her one.' That takes all the talk out of the
teacher. He just sets there wrappin' his legs round the chair and
glarin'. Ernest's voice rings clear above the school now, like the
Declaration of Independence. 'In Turkey Walley, teacher,' he says,
'five times eleven apples is sixty-five. They raises bigger apples
there.'

"Leander's legs unsprung. He ketched Ernest by the hair and lifted him
to the platform. Boys, you otter 'a' seen it. It was David and
Goliath all over agin, only fightin' fair. Havin' Leander holdin' his
hair give the boy a