The Strand Magazine, Vol. 17, February 1899, No. 98.Various
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 17, February 1899, No. 98.
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
When Myra came for him in the morning she found out what had happened.
She fished him out from behind the wardrobe with a good deal of
difficulty, and looked at him in consternation. He was sticky all over
with the tears he had shed, was very soft and limp, and, worst of all,
was leaking the Wars of the Roses and the chief towns of France from
more than one crack. However, Myra was late as it was; she had no time
to examine him carefully. She put him in her pocket, and ran off to
school. She put her hand in her pocket to feel if he were safe as soon
as she got to her seat. He felt softer and stickier than ever. Would he
be able to say the lessons? Myra felt doubtful, but as she did not
remember a word of them herself, she was obliged to trust to him.
Trembling she pulled the "Poetry" string, when Miss Prisms called on her
for her lesson. The Memory-Saver gasped and began; each word hurt him
very much to bring out, but as they came he began to feel strange and
light, happier than he had ever felt before. This is what he said: "A
chieftain to the Highlands bound--cries--the feminine of adjectives is
formed by adding eleven times nine are Rouen, former capital of
Normandy, and heir presumptive to the throne by his descent from the son
of Edward III., eleven times twelve are le père, the father, la mère,
the mother--Oh, I'm the chief of Ulva's isle, and this, Paris on the
Seine...."
"Myra, stop at once!" cried Miss Prisms, angrily; but Myra, or, rather,
the Memory-Saver, could not stop. His internal partitions were gone, and
whichever string was pulled, he was obliged to let out all that was
inside him. So for ten dreadful minutes he went on, pouring out French,
geography, history, and tables in one terrible mixture, while Myra
wished she could sink through the floor, the girls tittered, and Miss
Prisms' anger changed to anxiety. She began to fan Myra with an
exercise-book, begged her to be quiet, and assured her she would be
"better directly." At last, however, the Memory-Saver came to an end; he
would have been much longer, but a great deal had leaked out of him in
the night.
[Illustration: "THE GIRLS TITTERED."]
"Twelve twelves are a hundred and forty-four--Bayonne, at the mouth of
the Adour, mounted the throne as Henry VII.," he concluded.
Myra burst out crying. Miss Prisms made her take sal-volatile and lie on
the sofa in her sitting-room. As soon as school was over, she took Myra
home herself, and told her mother the little girl must be going to have
brain-fever. The doctor was called in and shook his head, looking very
wise, although he could find nothing at all the matter with Myra. "It is
a curious case," he said; "let her stay away from school for a week, and
send for me if another attack comes on."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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