"Yes, and we had EXAMINATIONS!" said Betsy.
"Did you?" said Cousin Ann, holding the thermometer up to the light and
looking at it.
"And you know how perfectly awful examinations make you feel," said
Betsy, very near to tears again.
"Why, no," said Cousin Ann, sorting over syrup tins. "They never made me
feel awful. I thought they were sort of fun."
"FUN!" cried Betsy, indignantly, staring through the beginnings of her
tears.
"Why, yes. Like taking a dare, don't you know. Somebody stumps you to
jump off the hitching-post, and you do it to show 'em. I always used to
think examinations were like that. Somebody stumps you to spell
'pneumonia,' and you do it to show 'em. Here's your cup of syrup. You'd
better go right out and wax it while it's hot."
Elizabeth Ann automatically took the cup in her hand, but she did not
look at it. "But supposing you get so scared you can't spell 'pneumonia'
or anything else!" she said feelingly. "That's what happened to me. You
know how your mouth gets all dry and your knees ..." She stopped. Cousin
Ann had said she did NOT know all about those things. "Well, anyhow, I
got so scared I could hardly STAND up! And I made the most awful
mistakes--things I know just as WELL! I spelled 'doubt' without any b
and 'separate' with an e, and I said Iowa was bounded on the north by
Wisconsin, and I ..."
"Oh, well," said Cousin Ann, "it doesn't matter if you really know the
right answers, does it? That's the important thing.
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