"You confess that you have missed five times, and God knows if you may have missed oftener.

_Atqui_, as I rarely call the roll, every time I catch any one I put five marks against him; _ergo_, how many are five times five?
Have you forgotten the multiplication table?
Five times five ?" "Twenty-five." "Correct, correct! Thus you've still got away with ten, because I have caught you only three times.

Huh, if I had caught you every time--Now, how many are three times five ?" "Fifteen." "Fifteen, right you are!" concluded the professor, closing the register.

"If you miss once more--out of doors with you, get out! Ah, now a mark for the failure in the daily lesson." He again opened the register, sought out the name, and entered the mark.

"Come, only one mark," he said, "since you hadn't any before." "But, Padre," exclaimed Placido, restraining himself, "if your Reverence puts a mark against me for failing in the lesson, your Reverence owes it to me to erase the one for absence that you have put against me for today." His Reverence made no answer.