actually performed a problem one day that had proved too much for their teacher, much to the mortification of the latter.

“I think the answer in the book must be wrong,” remarked the teacher, after an ineffectual attempt to solve the problem for a class. “You may try it, Henry, and when you are through, bring me the slate.”

Henry Boynton was good in arithmetic, but he could not bring an answer like that in the book, though it differed from the teacher’s answer.

“I can’t do it,” said Henry. “My answer is not like that in the book.”

“Bring your slate to me,” said the teacher.

Henry carried his slate to the teacher, who examined his work without pointing out an error, but adding:

“The answer in the book must be wrong.”

Here James interrupted by saying:

“I did it once.”

“And did you get the same answer as the book?”

“Yes, sir, I think so.”

“Let me see you do it, and then bring your slate to me.”

James went to work in his earnest way, and solved the problem very readily.

“I’ve done it,” said James, carrying his slate to the teacher.

The latter closely examined his solution of the problem, and found it to be correct, agreeing exactly with the textbook.

“It is true, James, you have performed it,” said the teacher, with evident mortification, which the larger scholars enjoyed. It was fun for them to have James beat the master. They had an exalted opinion of James’s abilities, and now he became their oracle. A boy who was a match for the master was a prodigy in their view. They looked up to him with a kind of reverence, though he was their companion.

We must not forget to mention one book that he read during that winter, “Robinson Crusoe.” We know not how it came into his hands, but he obtained it in some way, and read it twice through. Flat on his face before the blazing fire, he read the volume hour after hour, and wondered over it. He was very fond of reading about adventures; but this book surpassed anything of the kind he had ever read.

“I wish this book belonged to me,” he said to his mother one day.

“If you read it much more, its contents will belong to you,” his mother replied.

“I wish I owned it, then,” added James.

“I wish you did, too,” responded his mother. “What is there about it that interests you so much, my son?”

“It’s splendid,” was James’s answer. “I never read such an interesting book. I could read it ten times over, and not get tired of it. I wonder if there are any more books like it.”

“I suppose there are, if we knew where to find them,” Mrs. Garfield answered.