econd-hand air.
Is it any wonder that one in every three that die between fifteen and
twenty-five, dies of consumption?

You must have noticed that almost everybody that amounts to anything
spent his early life in the country. The city schools have great
educational advantages; they have all the up-to-date methods, but the
output of the Old Red Schoolhouse compares very favorably with that of
the city schools for all that. The two-mile walk, morning and evening,
had something to do with it, not only because it and the long nooning
were good exercise, but because it impressed upon the mind that what
cost so much effort to get must surely be worth having. But I think I
know another reason.

If the city child goes through the arithmetic once, it is as much as
ever. In the Old Red School-house those who hadn't gone through the
arithmetic at least six times, were little thought of. In town, the last
subject in the book was "Permutation," to which you gave the mere look
its essentially frivolous nature deserved. It was: "End of the line. All
out!" But in the country a very important department followed. It was
called "Problems." They were twisters, able to make "How old is Ann?"
look like a last year's bird's nest. They make a big fuss about the
psychology of the child's mind nowadays. Well, I tell you they couldn't
teach the man that got up that arithmetic a thing about the operation of
the child's mind. He knew what was what. He didn't put down the answers.
He knew that if he did, weak, erring human nature, tortured by suspense,
determined to have the agony over, would multiply by four and divide by
thirteen, and subtract 127--didn't, either. I didn't say "substract." I
guess I know they'd get the answer somehow, it didn't matter much how.

In the country they ciphered through this part, and handed in their sums
to Teacher, who said she'd take 'em home and look 'em over; she didn't
have time just then. As if that fooled anybody! She had a key! And when
you had done the very last one on the very last page, and there wasn't
anything more except the blank pages, where you had written, "Joe Geiger
loves Molly Meyers," and, "If my name you wish to see, look on page
103," and all such stuff, then you turned over to the beginning, where
it says, "Arithmetic is the science of numbers, and the art of computing
by them," and once more considered, "Ann had four apples and her brother
gave her two more. How many did she then have?" T