“What would you rather do, Maida?” persisted Rosie. “I think I’d rather go to school,” Maida answered honestly. “And what kind of a school?” Rosie kept it up. “Oh the school you all go to--in Charlestown. I’d love that.” “Oh how I wish your father would let you,” Rosie declared fervently. “Wouldn’t it be fun? But then you know all they could teach you there. You know geography and history and literature.” “Oh but my arithmetic is dreadful,” Maida declared, “and my spelling, and father says he is perfectly ashamed of my writing.” “But you speak French,” Laura said enviously, “and Italian!” “A very little Italian,” Maida confessed. “But you can read fairy tales in French,” Dicky said. “Oh what a lucky girl!” “Yes, I _do_ think I’m lucky in that,” Maida agreed with him. “And if you aren’t very good in arithmetic, you know all about English and French and Italian money,” Harold asserted. “I think that’s great!” “It’s very easy to learn that,” Maida said deprecatingly. “How I wish I knew fractions and percentage and square root--like you, Rosie.” “Rosie was the smartest girl in the room in arithmetic,” Dicky declared. “She could beat any one of us, and as for mental arithmetic--whew! And she always won in the spelling matches.” “I never was in a spelling match in my life,” Maida said in a grieved tone. “How I should enjoy it--except of course that I’d fail in the first word they gave me.” “Yes,” Dicky informed her, “they always give you something like _receive_ and _believe_ or _Mississippi_ or _separate_! I shall never learn how to spell _separate_ as long as I live.” “I’ll tell you how to remember it,” Harold offered. “You know there’s a city in South America called Para. Well, I always remember that there’s a Para right in the middle of separate.” “Gee that makes it easy!” Dicky’s voice was grateful. “I won’t forget that.” After an instant he added, “I hate school!” “So do I,” said Rosie. “So do I,” said Laura. “So do I,” said Arthur. “So do I,” said Harold. “I never went to school,” Maida said sadly. “Nor I,” admitted Silva. “Nor I,” admitted Tyma. “You’d want to go to school if you’d never had the chance,” Maida announced to the quartette of discontented ones. “Isn’t that true?” She appealed to Silva and Tyma. They both nodded. “Everybody wants what he doesn’t have,” Rosie said eagerly. “Now I should like to travel like Maida.” “Who wouldn’t!” exclaimed Laura and Arthur together. “And I’d like to have a tutor,” Dicky declared. “Somebody to read to you and answer all your questions. I should think that would be great.” “I don’t believe you would like school long, Maida,” Rosie went on. “At least if you went to the same kind of school we go to. Isn’t that so, Arthur?” Arthur nodded. “They’re no fun.”