one from the top figur' an' never pay it back at all,
thess count it off (that's the way I 've worked my lifelong subtraction,
though wife does hers payin' back), an' of co'se Sonny was ready to
dispute this way, an' he didn't have no mo' tac' than to th'ow up Miss
Alviry's way to the teacher, which of co'se he wouldn't stand,
particular ez Miss Alviry's got the biggest school. So they broke up in
a row, immejate, and Sonny went right along to Miss Kellogg's school
down here at the cross-roads.

She's a sort o' reformed teacher, I take it; an' she gets at her
subtraction by a new route altogether--like ez ef the first feller thet
had any surplus went sort o security for them thet was short, an' passed
the loan down the line. But I noticed he never got his money back, for
when they come to him, why, they docked him. I reckon goin' security is
purty much the same in an out o' books. She passes the borryin' along
some way till it gits to headquarters, an' writes a new row o' figur's
over the heads o' the others. Well, my old brain got so addled watchin'
Sonny work it thet I didn't seem to know one figur' f'om another 'fo' he
got thoo; but when I see the answer come, why, I was satisfied. Ef a man
can thess git his answers right all his life, why nobody ain't a-goin'
to pester him about how he worked his figur's.

I did try to get Sonny to stick to one school for each rule in
'rithmetic, an' havin' thess fo' schools, why he could learn each o' the
fo' rules by one settled plan. But he wont promise nothin'. He'll quit
for lessons one week, and maybe next week somethin' else 'll decide him.
(He's quit ever' one of 'em in turn when they come to long division.)
He went thoo a whole week o' disagreeable lessons once-t at one school
'cause he was watchin' a bird-nest on the way to that school. He was
determined them young birds was to be allowed to leave that nest without
bein' pestered, an' they stayed so long they purty nigh run him into
long division 'fo' they did fly. Ef he'd 'a' missed school one day he
knowed two sneaky chaps thet would 'a' robbed that nest, either goin'
or comin'.

Of co'se Sonny goes to the exhibitions an' picnics of all the schools.
Last summer we had a time of it when it come picnic season. Two schools
set the same day for theirs, which of co'se wasn't no ways fair to
Sonny. He payin' right along in all the schools, of co'se he was
entitled to all the picnics; so I put on my Sunday clo'es, an' I went