his letter?"

"I dunno," said Rollo, resolutely.

"That is A," said his father, sweetly.

"Huh," replied Rollo, "I knowed that."

"Then why did you not say so?" replied his father, so sweetly that
Jonas, the hired boy, sitting in the corner, licked his chops.

Rollo's father went on with the lesson:

"What is this, Rollo?"

"I dunno," said Rollo, hesitatingly.

"Sure?" asked his father. "You do not know what it is?"

"Nuck," said Rollo.

"It is A," said his father.

"A what?" asked Rollo.

"A nothing," replied his father, "it is just A. Now, what is it?"

"Just A," said Rollo.

"Do not be flip, my son," said Mr. Holliday, "but attend to your lesson.
What letter is this?"

"I dunno," said Rollo.

"Don't fib to me," said his father, gently, "you said a minute ago that
you knew. That is N."

"Yes, sir," replied Rollo, meekly. Rollo, although he was a little boy,
was no slouch, if he did wear bibs; he knew where he lived without
looking at the door-plate. When it came time to be meek, there was no
boy this side of the planet Mars who could be meeker, on shorter notice.
So he said, "Yes, sir," with that subdued and well pleased alacrity of a
boy who has just been asked to guess the answer to the conundrum, "Will
you have another piece of pie?"

"Well," said his father, rather suddenly, "what is it?"

"M," said Rollo, confidently.

"N!" yelled his father, in three-line Gothic.

"N," echoed Rollo, in lower case nonpareil.

"B-a-n," said his father, "what does that spell?"

"Cat?" suggested Rollo, a trifle uncertainly.

"Cat?" snapped his father, with a sarcastic inflection, "b-a-n, cat!
Where were you raised? Ban! B-a-n--Ban! Say it! Say it, or I'll get at
you with a skate-strap!"

"B-a-m, band," said Rollo, who was beginning to wish that he had a
rain-check and could come back and see the remaining innings some other
day.

"Ba-a-a-an!" shouted his father, "B-a-n, Ban, Ban, Ban! Now say Ban!"

"Ban," said Rollo, with a little gasp.

"That's right," his father said, in an encouraging tone; "you will learn
to read one of these years if you give your mind to it. All he needs,
you see, Mary, is a teacher who doesn't lose patience with him the first
time he makes a mistake. Now, Rollo, how do you spell, B-a-n--Ban?"

Rollo started out timidly on c-a--then changed to d-o,--and finally
compromised on h-e-n.

Mr. Holiday made a pass at him with Volume I, but Rollo saw it coming
and got out of t