Expensive Arithmetic.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 21, 23 November 1910, Page 2

Expensive Arithmetic.

A school teacher, in Sheffield (according to the "Newcastle Chronicle” (a sober journal not given to joking), received the following from a complaining parent a few days ago:— “ Sir, —Will you please for the future give mv boy some eesier somes io do at nights. This is what he brought hoam to or three nights back: ' If for gallins of bere will fill thirty-to pint bottles, how meny pint and half-pint bottles will nine gallins fill? Well, we tried, and could make nothing of it at ail; and my boy cried, and sed he didn’t dare go back in the morning without doin’ it. “ So I had to go and buy a nine-gallin cask of bere, which I could ill afford to do, and then we went and borowed a lot of wine and brandy bottles, beside a few we had by us. Well, we emtied the eask into the bottles and then counted them, and there were 19, and my boy put the number down for an answer. “I don’t know wether it is rite or not, as we spilt some while doin’ it. “ p.S.—Plea-se let the next some be in water, as I am not able to buy more bere.” It is at all events a “ben trovato,” even if not a true story; nut, knowing Sheffield’s taste in refreshment (as some “Star” readers may also do), what joy in that family after helping with the lessons I