FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  
ethumbed volume over which he had struggled so hard. The old man skimmed through its pages, nodding his head from time to time and mumbling in a satisfied way. Then, like a man driving in a nail, he pounded Eric with question after question. He seemed to be asking them from the book, but Eric knew that none of the problems had their origin in it, for they dealt with the work he had been doing in the little cottage by the sea. Yet to almost every one the boy returned a correct answer, or at least, one which was correct in its approach. For two long hours the puzzle-maker questioned him, without ever a minute's let up. At the end of it, Eric was as limp as a rag. At last the old man laid down the book. "When your examination is?" he asked. "Next June," the boy replied. "You can pass him now." Eric stared at the old man with wild surprise in his gaze and with a down-dropped jaw. "But I haven't even started on the second half of the book," he said. "And I've got to do it all!" "You pass him now," was the quiet answer. "The second part--you have done him, too. Learn rules, if you like. No matter. You know him. See!" He showed the very last set of examples in the book and Eric recognized problems of the kind he had been doing, all unwitting to himself. "Mathematics not to learn," he said, "he is to think. You now can think. To know a rule, to do sum--bah! he is nothing! To know why a rule and because a sum--he is much. You do him." In the few remaining visits that Eric paid the puzzle-maker, he found the old man's words to be quite true. Having learned the inside of mathematics, its actual workings seemed reasonable. The clew gave Eric the sense of exploring a new world of thought instead of being lost in a tangled wilderness. Meantime, he had become absolutely expert in every detail of the station. His particular delight was the capsize drill. The keeper had got the crew trained down to complete the whole performance within fifty seconds from the time he gave the order. The boat had to be capsized, every man underneath the boat. Then they had to clamber on the upturned boat, right it again, and be seated on the thwarts with oars ready to pull before the fiftieth second was past. It was quick work, and although only a drill, was as exciting as the lad could wish. Two or three times, one of the men, who wasn't quite as quick as the rest, got "waterlogged" and the crew had to help him up. When that occurre
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
answer
 

puzzle

 

correct

 

problems

 

question

 
tangled
 
thought
 

actual

 
remaining
 

visits


workings

 

reasonable

 
wilderness
 

mathematics

 
Having
 

learned

 
inside
 
exploring
 

exciting

 

fiftieth


waterlogged

 

occurre

 

thwarts

 

seated

 

delight

 

capsize

 

keeper

 

trained

 

station

 

absolutely


expert

 
detail
 

complete

 

clamber

 

upturned

 
underneath
 

capsized

 
performance
 

seconds

 
Meantime

started
 

cottage

 
origin
 
returned
 

questioned

 

minute

 
approach
 

skimmed

 
nodding
 

ethumbed