"Maybe you're right," laughed Sally. "Arithmetic always was my stumbling
block at school. I never could learn the tables, and the first year I
was married I sold butter with just twelve ounces to the pound, till
Cousin Albert's wife told me better. She'd been takin' my butter for a
month, and one Saturday morning she said to me: 'Cousin Sally, I hate to
mention it, and I hope you won't take offence, but your butter's short
weight.' Well, of course that made me mad, but I held my temper down,
and I said: 'Cousin Ella, I think you're mistaken, I weigh my butter
myself, and I've got good true scales, and there's twelve ounces of
butter and a little over in every pound I sell.' And Cousin Ella laughed
and says: 'I know that, Cousin Sally, but there ought to be sixteen
ounces in a pound of butter. You're usin' the wrong table.' And she
picked up little Albert's arithmetic and showed me the two tables, one
for druggists and one for grocers; and there I'd been using druggist's
weight to weigh groceries. Well, we had a good laugh over it, and I put
twenty ounces of butter to the pound 'till I made up all my short
weight. I never did learn all the multiplication table, and all the
arithmetic I'm certain about now is: one baby and another baby makes two
babies, and twelve things make a dozen. I wouldn't remember that if it
wasn't for countin' the eggs and the napkins. But maybe Dan can help me
out with the chart."
"Don't depend on me," said Dan emphatically; "my arithmetic is about
like yours. I know how many pecks of corn make a bushel and how many
rods are in an acre, but that sort o' knowledge wouldn't be much help in
cuttin' out a woman's jacket." And early the next morning Sally returned
the chart, acknowledging that its mathematical complexities had baffled
both herself and Dan. "And besides," she added, "I don't believe there's
enough of my China silk to cut anything. I'll have to match it and get
some more the next time I go to town."
One after another the neighbors borrowed Mary's chart, and each came
back with the same story,--there was too much arithmetic about it, but
if they brought their goods some time this week or next, would not Mary
show them how to use it?
Of course she would. When did Mary Crawford ever refuse to help a
neighbor?
"Come whenever you please," said she cordially. "It will not be a bit of
trouble, and you'll find the chart is easy enough, after I've given you
a little help on it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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