Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/65

 so lightly, were a large sum in the eyes of boys whose fathers gain a livelihood by working by the day, and you ought to have exercised a little common sense in your dealings with them. If it were necessary that you should have the dinner or starve, why did you not pay for it yourselves, and not ask those poor boys to 'chip in', as you term it? There's the high school," said Mr. Farnsworth, pointing with his cane to an imposing building, standing in the midst of extensive and well-kept grounds which occupied one whole block of the village property.

"That's my great objection to Mount Airy," said Ralph, shaking his fist at the school house. "Our teacher told us one day last term that the binomial theorem is just the same in China and Brazil that it is in New London, so I suppose it must be the same up here. Fine scenery around a school house doesn't make the lessons inside any easier."

"You're right there," growled Tom, who was thinking of those Orations of Cicero to which he would have to devote his attention next term, "I'd much rather go fishing."