Chapter C: C. FITTS. I g-g-guess it's d-d-dirt!

TEACHER. There's a dictionary somewhere in the schoolhouse. You may hunt it up and look for that word. (_The two boys, appearing tired and discouraged, start on their quest, looking in the most unlikely places, even on the nails where pupils' garments are hung. The quest should be a quiet one, the fun lying in its utter hopelessness._)

BOY (_in seat_). I don't understand this question. (_Reads._) A milkman spilled a pint of milk out of an eight-gallon can, how much milk was left?

SECOND BOY (_in seat_). Hoh! that's easy. There wasn't none left.

TEACHER. Explain.

SECOND BOY. 'Cause the rest was water.

TEACHER (_resuming_). The next may tell me about some Bible character. Who was Esau?

PUPIL. Esau lived six hundred years before Christ. He wrote fables for a living, and sold the copyright of them for a bottle of potash.

GIRL (_raising hand_). I thought it was Æsop that wrote fables.

BOY (_raising hand_). And didn't Esau sell his _birthright_, or was it _copyright_?

BOY (_in seat, raising hand_). It says in my book that some of the stars are bigger'n the earth; 'tain't true, is it?

TEACHER. Certainly. Why not?

BOY. 'Cause why don't they keep the rain off, then?