y legs have six
oxen?" Answer: "24." and so we continued, the right reply being
generally given after this exercise had been repeated a few times.

In May, 1916, Lola learnt the big multiplication-table, doing so easily
and quickly. She was at first slightly inaccurate in the higher
numbers, for rapping out the "hundreds" with the right paw and the
"tens" with the left--and then again the "ones" with the right gave her
some trouble in the beginning. Yet such questions as: 3 + 14, 2 + 17, 4
+ 20, were given without hesitation, since these did not come within
the region of the hundreds. But in time she got used to the hundreds
too--and even to thousands, and to these latter she applied her left
paw, rapping the date 1916 thus: left paw 1; right paw 9; left paw 1;
right paw 6.

Towards the end of May I thought I would teach her fractions, and she
apparently understood what I meant, but for a beginning I could only
put questions, such as: "How many _wholes_ are there in 20/4, 12/4, or
11/2" etc. Indeed, I was at first at a loss as to what form of
expression I should use here--so as not to come into collision with
those already resorted to, thus giving rise to confusion. At first I
thought it might be more convenient to let her rap out the denominator
with her right paw and the numerator with her left--but I soon came to
see that even with 3/16, this method could no longer be maintained. At
length I let her simply rap out the numerator--then I would ask for the
denominator, and let her rap this, so that in the case of 3/16 she
rapped the 3 first with her right paw; then gave the denominator, i.e.
1 rap with her left paw and 6 again with her right. This mode or
procedure came quite naturally to her, and so it was retained. The
questions were practised in the following manner:--"How do you rap 3/8,
12/6?" etc., and I followed this up with easy exercises such as: "How
much is 2/8 + 1/4?" the simplified answer being "1/2." I had, as may be
imagined, already given her repeated and detailed explanations on the
subject before she was capable of giving such answers as "1/2," to the
above question. Simplifying was also practised separately thus:
"Simplify 20/16!" Answer: "1-1/4." this being given with "1 r" (pause)
"1 r" (another pause); "and the denominator?" "4 r." To anyone
following her actions, the meaning would appear quite distinct. I now
determined that she should add together numbers having different
denominators--as, for