olumn of pocket cash-book in Roman numerals, then, without
thinking in figures, add up column."

Not in the least understanding what were the old man's ideas the boy did
as he was told. It was easy enough to write down the numbers, but when
he came to add them up, he found himself thinking of Arabic figures in
spite of himself.

"I'm cheating," said Eric suddenly, "I can't help adding up in the old
way."

"Good boy," said the puzzle-maker. "I knew that. I show you some more.
Simple addition. Write in Roman numerals one billion, seven hundred and
forty-two million, nine hundred and eighty-three thousand, four hundred
and twenty-seven and eleven-sixteenths."

Although pretty well posted, Eric had a hard time writing down the
number and had to ask a lot of questions before he could even write it
correctly. Then the puzzle-maker gave him half a dozen figures of the
same kind. It looked weird on paper.

"Now add him up," the old man charged him.

The boy started bravely. But he hadn't gone very far before he got
absolutely stuck. He wrestled with that sum of simple addition for
nearly an hour. At last he got a result which seemed right.

"Put him down in ordinary figures," came the order. "Add him up."

Eric did so, having his own difficulties in re-transcribing from the
Roman numerals.

"Are they the same?"

"No," the boy said, "I got the other wrong somewhere."

"S'posin' you had him right," the puzzle-maker said, "it took you hour.
Ordinary figures you did him in thirty-two seconds."

"I see," said Eric, "it's another case of wonderful but not wonderful
enough, isn't it?"

"Exactly. Here," the other continued, reaching down a manuscript
portfolio, "is every kind of numbers ever made. You find that the
Hindu--or wrongly called Arabic--numerals are the only ones wonderful
enough for modern uses."

Thoroughly interested, the boy sat down with this big manuscript book.
Weird schemes of numeration rioted over the pages, from the Zuni finger
and the Chinese knuckle systems to the latest groups of symbols, used in
modern higher mathematics, of which the boy had not even heard. It was
noon before he realized with a start that the morning was gone.

"Oh, Dan!" he said reproachfully, "we haven't done anything to-day."

"Never mind," said the old man, "we get a start after a while."

That afternoon, when the boy settled down to do some work on his own
account, he felt a much greater friendliness to the mere look