A Missionary Twig

EDITH TRIES TO EXPLAIN. I do think Edith is the queerest girl I ever saw in all my life! said Marty Ashford. Don't jump up and down behind my chair that way, Marty, said her mother; you shake me so that I can scarcely hold my needle. What does Edith do that is so queer? Oh, she's always putting ten into things. Putting ten into things? Yes'm. I mean when she gets any money she always says ten will go into it so many times, and then she takes a tenth of it – you know we learn about tenths in fractions at school – and goes and puts it in a blue box she has. I should call that taking ten out of things. Well, whatever it is, that's what she does. Every time she gets ten cents she puts one cent in her blue box. What does she do if she only gets five cents? Oh, she keeps it very carefully till she gets another five, and then she takes her tenth out of it. And would you believe it, when we were all at Asbury Park last summer – Marty, interrupted her mother, "can't you tell me just as well sitting still? You fidget so that you make me dreadfully nervous