GIFT OF SINCLAIR KENNEDY COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PREFACE OME one once made a bad pun about SOME arithmetic. "Children need to cipher, but it is not a thing they sigh fer." A sad joke; a sadder truth. Alas, children—sometimes, too, those of an older growth - do indeed often sigh, not for, but over the Science of Numbers. Yet, they need not. As a matter of fact, there is nothing in arithmetic to overtax any average brain. Nor should the study prove tedious. A fair amount of attention, a fair amount of practice, mean easy and rapid mastery. The great trouble has been heretofore in the way of teaching. The whole subject has been made needlessly hard at the outset. The chief fault has been in too many definitions at the start. The pupil has been forced |