with a net. You can tell how old the boy is by the
number of round marks in the picture, and the person who is speaking
is denoted by a tongue in front of the mouth.

When his fifteenth year came, Master M. found he would have plenty to
do. After this, old Mr. M. had no trouble with him. It is curious--the
more we have to do, the less liable we are to do something we should
not, and--let us all study on that half an hour, some day, and see
what we can make of it.

[Illustration: MASTER MONTEZUMA'S PARENTS TAKE HIM TO THE PRIEST AND
THE TEACHER.]

He had two teachers, the priest and the military professor. It seemed
as if everything was to be learned. There was arithmetic, he learned
to make figures. A round, blue dot stands for one.

Five of them make five, and ooooo-o (five and one) is six, and in that
way it runs up to ten. If he wanted to say "twenty" he made a flag,
and for forty he made two flags.

Just imagine such a multiplication table as this: Five times four is
one flag. Flag times flag is one plume. Flag times plume is one purse!
Let's see; a purse, then, would equal 8,000. Yes, and if he wanted to
write 4,000 he would draw only half a purse. All the examples in their
arithmetic were worked by such tables as these.

Then there were lessons in time. He had to learn that five days make a
week, four weeks make a month, and eighteen months make a year; and as
all that footed up only three hundred and sixty days, they threw in
what they called the five unlucky days that belonged to no month, to
fill up before they commenced a new year. And then he found another
arrangement for doing what we do with our leap-year, for, once in
fifty-two years they put in twelve and one-half extra days, which is
something like setting the clock ahead when you find it is too slow by
the town bell or the fire alarm.

[Illustration: MASTER MONTEZUMA MUST BE PUNISHED.]

He learned that this kind of calendar had been in use a long time, and
was the result of careful study and calculation by the wise priests of
the olden time; and, when he wanted to know how long, he counted up
the bundles of reeds which represented centuries, and found that
it had been in use over four hundred years. And all this, you must
remember, was before San Salvador was discovered by Columbus. Then he
had to study all about the naming of the years and the cycles. How, if
this year was "one rabbit," next year would be "two cane," the third
"three flint,"