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63 over, then, I am to give her a tremendous scolding and a big basket of green apples.”

“Or, what is worse, suppose you encourage her to study the Greatest Common Divisor? I am trying to get her ready for school in the fall.”

“Is she being educated for a teacher?”

“You know that Southern ladies never teach.”

“Then she will never need the Greatest Common Divisor. I have known many thousands of human beings, and none but teachers ever have the least use for the Greatest Common Divisor.”

“But she needs to do things that she dislikes. We all do.”

I smiled at the memory of a self-willed little bare foot on a log years ago.

“I shall see that my grape arbor does not further interfere with Miss Sylvia’s progress towards perfection.”