THE BOOK OF BETTY BARBER.
“And who did the sums in the book?” asked Thirteen-fourteenths.
They all shook their heads.
Then Ellessdee said angrily:
“I wish we knew whose book it was. We would” Then he stopped. “What would we do to the boy or girl, whichever it was, who did all these sums so terribly wrong?”
They all rose in their desks, and Ellessdee held the paper over his head.
“We would tear that boy or that girl up into teeny tiny pieces, as we tear up these papers now,” shouted Ellessdee.
“Tear up these papers,” shouted Repeater, picking up the paper from the Fraction’s desk. And for one minute there was a sound of tearing paper, and then showers of little pieces were thrown up in the air, and fell fluttering to the ground.
“That doesn’t do much good,” said Thirteen-fourteenths. “The sums must be put right. You know that as well as I do, and now you will only have to set to work and copy them all out again.”
“Copy them all out again,” shouted Repeater.
“Give me some more paper, Tare,” said Ellessdee. “I know I shall have to copy the old sums out again, but I feel better all the same. It has relieved my feelings wonderfully.”
Tare carried round the sheets of paper.
“I’ll get the book,” said Ellessdee.
“Let me see it for one minute,” said Thirteen-fourteenths.
Ellessdee walked out of the hall shouting, “All right, you shall see it.”
“They had to take the book outside,” explained Tare.
“It made them so very angry to see it,” added Tret.
“It isn’t a very big book,” explained the girl called Sois, who had charge of the proportion sums, “and whose white dress was covered with four big black dots in front, and four big black dots behind. “It looks just like an ordinary exercise book. But, oh, sir, when you look inside,” and the girl sighed, “page after page of the wrongest sums you ever beheld.”
