More Adventures Of The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald Read Free Book Online Page B

isn’t going to try as long as she thinks you don’t want her to get an education.”

        Mr. Blake looked steadily at Tom. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

        “I’ll make a deal with you,” Tom said. “You tell Dotty you’ve changed your mind and want her to get an education. Tell her she must come to my house every weekday night for an hour and for two hours on Saturday mornings. That is your part of the deal. If you agree, I’ll read to Dotty for half an hour every weekday night from Black Beauty and other books and help her with her lessons the other half hour. And I’ll tutor her for two hours every Saturday. And I’ll let her ride Dusty every Saturday afternoon for as long as she wants.”

        Mr. Blake stood up and grabbed his crutch. He hobbled to the counter and held out his hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal, boy,” he said.

        Dotty was smiling when she entered our parlor that evening just a few minutes after seven.

        “We will study for half an hour,” Tom said, “and then I’ll read to you from Black Beauty for half an hour.”

        “Pa told me,” she said and looked as if she’d just been given every present under a Christmas tree. “I’m ready to start learning.”

        Tom had got my old set of blocks with the alphabet on them from our attic and had put them on the floor. He told Dotty to sit down opposite him on the floor with the blocks between them. He explained to her each of the blocks had a different letter of the alphabet on it.

        “We will start with the first letter of the alphabet,” he said as he picked up the block with an A on it. “This is a vowel and called an A like in the word hay. It has other sounds when used in other words. We’ll study them later.

       

     

    Look at the letter close, and say out loud five times, ‘This is a 4.”’

        Then Tom pushed a ruled notebook over to Dotty and handed her a pencil.

         “Now print the letter A in the notebook just like it is on the block ten times,” he said.

        Tom continued teaching Dotty the alphabet this way until the half hour was up. By that time she had memorized A through G. She could pronounce them, write them in the notebook, and when Tom mixed up all the blocks on the floor, pick them out in alphabetical order. Tom was right. Dotty had a good mind.

        Then Tom read Black Beauty to Dotty for half an hour, during which she sat spellbound with her eyes closed.

         The next morning Dotty came to our house at ten o’clock, right after Tom and I had finished our Saturday chores. Tom was teaching Dotty more letters when the front door bell rang. I opened the door. There stood Sammy Leeds. He saw Dotty and Tom before I could step onto our front porch and shut the door. I could see Basil, Parley Benson, and Danny Forester standing on the front lawn.

        “We’re going down to the blacksmith shop to watch Mr. Huddle,” Sammy said. “You and Tom want to come along?”

    “We can’t go now,” I said. “Tom is helping Dotty.”

        I knew from the triumphant look on Sammy’s face that I’d said the wrong thing.

        Tom continued teaching Dotty the alphabet until the hour was up, and then he read Black Beauty to her for more than an hour until he’d finished it, just before our lunchtime.

        “Starting Monday I’ll begin reading you the story of Cinderella,” he promised. “You can come and get Dusty right after lunch and have him all afternoon.”

       

    After lunch Tom and I went to the Smiths’ vacant lot, where the kids were playing one-o-cat. The game stopped immediately as they crowded around us.

        “Surprised to see you here, Tom,” Sammy said slyly. “We didn’t think we’d see much of you anymore, now that you’ve started playing with girls.”

        Jimmie Peterson hitched up his britches, which were one size too big for him. “Only sissies play with girls,” he