"The Roman general wasn't half so much interested in sums as he was in war; if he had been, he would have learned them all right!"
"I ain't a-sayin' nuthin' 'bout what a Roman gen'ral would or wouldn't 'a' done, but I know my pore old mother would be mighty glad if somebody squirted some book-l'arnin' into my noddle. Folks all tells her I won't never amount to nuthin' in school, an' I'm beginnin' to believe it myself, fer I'm fifteen years old."
Gilbert, looking at the dejected boy, carefully sponged out Sandy's incorrect work and put the figures of his example across the top of the slate—4-3-6-11-8-13-9.
"Now, let's take the figure 4 for a starter, and then add 3. We do that by taking three of your fingers and adding them to the four; four, five, six, seven," counting on Sandy's upraised and outstretched hand, and turning down each finger until seven was reached.
"That's right," said Sandy. "Lemme try it alone." Slowly he told off three of his fingers. "Yes, that comes out two times runnin', an' I see jest how it's done."
The boy's face seemed illumined by a new light.
