be drilled to read in concert; that spelling shall not be taught by written exercises, etc.

A. The power of the board, under section 52, relates to organization, gradation and government, but not to methods of teaching, except to advise. See section 54.

Q. Our board promised the summer school to our last teacher, but afterwards made a contract with another teacher holding no certificate at the time. Both claim the school-which is entitled to it?

A. The contract is void, and cannot be enforced. (See sections 134 and 136). The teacher who was promised the school has a claim probably against the members of the board, individually, but not against the district.

Q. Is there any law allowing or prohibiting corporal punishment in the common schools of the state?

A. There is no statute law on the subject. By the common law, a parent is justified in inflicting reasonable chastisement, and the teacher, standing, as he does, in the parent's place, may do the same.

Q. Some of the pupils in our district school have become almost unmanageable. The board has been notified to come in and expel such pupils, but they will not come near, nor will they do anything in the matter whatever. What is to be done in a case of this kind?

A. The teacher should mair.tain order. If unable to do this without the moral support of the board, and they refuse to come near, he may reasonably ask to be released from his contract.

Q. Has a city board of education or a district board a right to suspend or expel a pupil from school for constant tardiness or for irregular attendance?

A. A district board has this general power under section 52, but it is of doubtful expediency to execute it. It may be the fault of the parent. Shall a pupil be turned out of school for this? It is bad enough that he is degraded to a lower class.

Q. If a school is closed on account of the small-pox, can the teacher recover wages while it is closed?

A. Yes; if it is closed without his consent.

Q.

How can the teacher recover his wages if the clerk refuses to draw an order?

A. By mandamus, or by getting him removed under section 124, and another clerk appointed.

Q. Our teacher punished a scholar inhumanly; can he be removed? A. The board would be justified in discharging a teacher for a flagrant act of this nature, and a county superintendent in annulling his certificate.

Q. Has a teacher a right in law to control a school, and bring a stubborn child to order?

A. Of course he has, if within the compass of his power, by reasonable means. If not, let the board be called to act.

Q. Can a creditor garnishee or attach a teacher's wages, yet in the hands of the district treasurer?

A. Probably the courts would decide that he cannot, as being against public policy, and because the teacher is a public servant.

Q. Please inform me if it is lawful for a teacher to require pupils that bring their dinner to school, to remain on the school-house grounds during intermission, between twelve and one o'clock?

A. It is quite proper that such should be the rule, and the rule would be lawful.

Q. Is it advisable to allow girls and boys to engage in the same plays on the school-house grounds?

A. This depends upon the nature of the plays. Under proper restraints, and in suitable sports, there is no reason why they should not play together at school, the same as at home. The principal trouble is, that the confinement in the school-room is often so rigid that the sports out doors are boisterous and unseemly.

Q. Is there any law allowing a teacher to keep pupils after the regular time for closing schools?

A. There is no law on the subject; neither is the regular time of closing school fixed by law-only by custom. It is not unlawful to keep a pupil after school, if such is the rule established, for failure in lessons or otherwise.

Q. Can a district compel a teacher to make fires, before 9, if not mentioned in the contract?

A. No, an ordinary contract to teach the school is not a contract to make fires, but if it has been the custom for the teacher to do it, he should be told so, and the matter understood beforehand.

Q. Is it the duty of the district or teacher, to hire a boy to make

the fires?

A. It is not the duty of the teacher, unless he so agrees.

Q. If a teacher does not teach between Christmas and New Year's, is he entitled to those days or must they be considered as lost time? A. If holidays occur during a vacation, neither teacher nor school can claim more holidays, on that account, in term time. That school is suspended, when a legal holiday comes, is not for the special behoof of the teacher.

Q. Under the township system, who attends to repairing schoolhouses, procuring fuel, etc.?

A. The town board of directors or the executive committee thereof. (See sections 12 and 13, of township law.)

Q. Is it lawful for a county superintendent to require all the teachers to meet at one place for examination?

A. The law requires him to divide his jurisdiction into inspection districts of not more than four towns each, and to hold examinations in each at least twice a year.

Q. In order that his examinations may be "uniform," must the county superintendent use the same questions in each inspection. district.

A. Not unless he deems it expedient. The examinations must be "uniform" in the sense that they must be equal in severity and in the standard to be reached. It is often very necessary to change the qustions, as they may reach a given inspection district before the examiner does.

Q. Can a county superintendent withhold a certificate for lack of moral character if no charges have been made and sustained?

A. It is not necessrry that a man shall have been convicted of an infamous crime, or that specific charges of immorality shall have been made and proved before he can be regarded as lacking in moral character. If his common reputation is bad, or if the superintendent knows or learns that his habits are immoral, he may justly refuse a certificate.

Q. In what sense is the decision of the state superintendent final, as stated in section 122?

A. In that there is no ordinary right of appeal to some higher court, and in that the action appealed from and set aside cannot properly be repeated during the pendency of the same state of facts.

Query and Scrap Box.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT.-We are indebted to Prof. J. W. STERLING, of the State University, for a fine solution of problem 111 (December No.), which we are unable to give for want of means on the part of the printers to get up the requisite diagram.

We have also received from ALEX. S. CHRISTIE, Lowell, an interesting astronomical problem, with solution, which we are obliged to omit for the same

reason.

The printer, in correcting proof last month, attempted to put an'l in the star Betelgeuze, page 150, and dropped it into Kindergarten below, and proceeded to put the word "French" for "thus" in the next article but one below. For 'bauts,” next article, read “baut.” ̧

A valued critic calls in question the explanation of Mousignare, p. 140; says of schreiberzite: "It should be schreibezeit, I presume," and that the definition of decalcomania "includes too much"; asks what is meant by ancient times, in the definition of Neibelungen, and proposes that those who call "back" a verb (question 142), shall carry it through a synopsis.

We are indebted to Mrs. S. C. SIRRINE, Plainfield, for answers to questions 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130 and 134, which had perhaps been sufficiently answered already.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.

141.-Analyze and parse, “You have taken me prisoner."

The word "prisoner" expresses the result, or effect of the taking,... the factitive object of the verb. The factitive object is not necessarily in the objective case (I was taken prisoner), nor a noun or pronoun (she wept her eyes red; he cried himself sick).-J. C. P.

148.-240 sheep, in 12 weeks, have eaten all the grass on 10 acres of land including the grass which was there when they began, and also, that which grew during the time they were grazing. In like manner 420 sheep, in 27 weeks, have eaten all the grass upon 30 acres. How many sheep, in 54 weeks, in a similar manner, can eat all the grass upon 72 acres, supposing the grass to grow uniformly, and to be the same upon each acre when the sheep began to graze? I would like to see a solution by common arithmetic?

Answers have been sent by J. B., Fond du Lac; M. E. C., R. Falls; N. DARROW, Reedsburg; JOHN HARDGROVE, Forest; W. H., Eagle Point; S. LITTLEFIELD Plymouth; and W. L. R., Waukesha. We give the solution furnished by

W. H.

240+10=24, the No. of sheep 1 acre keeps 12 weeks. 420÷30-14, the No. 1 acre sustains 27 weeks. 24 x 12-288, the No. of sheep the standing grass of 1 acre, with what grows in 12 weeks, will sustain for 1 week. Also 14 x 27=378, what the standing grass of 1 acre, with 27 weeks growth, will sustain for 1 week. 27-12-15 excess in No. of weeks growth in the 2 propositions on 1 acre. 378-288-90 No. of sheep sustained 1 week on growth of 1 acre for 15 weeks. 90+15-6 No. of sheep the growing grass of each acre will sustain.

10×6=60 No. of sheep the growing grass of 10 acres will feed. 30×6=180 No. of sheep the growing grass of 30 acres will feed.

240-60-180+10=18 × 12=216. |

420-180=240+30=80×27-216. No. of sheep that the standing grass of 1

acre will sustain for 1 week.

Then 72 × 6=432, what the growing grass of 72 acres will sustain.

216 × 72=15,552÷64-288 what the standing grass of 72 acres will sustain for 54 weeks. 432+288=720. Ans.-W. H., Eagle Point.

151.-A man bought cows, sheep and lambs, 100 in all, for $100. He paid $10 for each cow, $3 for each sheep and 50 cents for each lamb; how many did he buy of each kind?

Arithmetical solutions have been sent by J. B., N. DARROW, Reedsburg, JOHN HARDGROVE, W. H., Eagle Point, A. A. KRAUSE, Greenfield, S. LITTLEFIELD, Plymouth, E. P., Poynette, H. F. РоHLAND, Centerville, and J. R. R., Hazel Green, and an algebraic solution by BELLE HARDENBURG, Lone Rock; also, answers without the reasoning, by J. S. BORLAND, Menomonie, and ANNIE CARBERRY, Fond du Lac. We give the solutions furnished by Messrs. DARROW and LITTLEFIELD and by Miss HARDENBURG:

If the man buy a cow for $10, he must buy 18 lambs so as to have them worth $1 each. 18+1=19 bought. If he buy a sheep for $3, he must buy 4 labs at $.50=5 bought. Take any multiples of 19 and 5, which make 100: take 5 × 19=95 of first lot and onee 5=100. The nineteen contained one cow, then 5 times has 5 cows, we will have but one sheep and 18+5=90 and 4-94 lambs.-N. DARROW. This is a question in alligation-average price, $1.00. Link cows and lambs, and we get 1 cow and 18 lambs, 19 animals, or any multiple of 19. Link sheep and lambs, and we get 1 sheep and 4 lambs, 5 animals, or any multiple of 5. The question now is to add multiples of 19 and multiples of 5 so as to make 100. It is readily seen that this may be done in two ways only: 1st, by taking 5 twenty times; 2d, by taking 19 five times and 5 once. In the first case we have 0 cows, 20 sheep, and 80 lambs. In the second we have 5 cows, 1 sheep and 94 lambs. Similarly may be solved, arithmetically, all the questions usually referred to "algebraic" indeterminate analysis.-S. LITTLEFIELD.

Let c=number of cows.

8=number of sheep.

b=number of lambs.

(1.) c+8+b=100 per question; (2.) 20c+68+b=100 half dollars, per question;

p=0, then 8=1 and form 3d eq., c is found=5, consequently b=94. If we take p=1, then 8=20 and form 3d eq. c=0; therefore the above is the only possible answer to the question.-BELLE HARDENBERGH, Lone Rock.

152.—A person being asked the hour of the day, replied, that of the time past noon equal 3 of the time from now to midnight+23 hours. What was the time?

Solutions were furnished by L. H. BRAINARD, Amherst; J. B., M. E. C., JOHN HARDGROVE, H. M. LEMON, Ripon; E. P., Poynette; G. H. TURNER, Albany, and V. U., Eagle. We give those of J. B. and V. U.

The whole time is 12 hours, ... 23 hours of the whole time; then of the time since noon of the whole time; .. the time past noon equals of the whole time, or six o'clock.-J. B.

If time from noon equals of the time to midnight +23 hours, then the whole time from noon must equal of the time to midnight+4 hours; then +

of the time to midnight+4 hours must equal 12 hours. Hence the time to midnight is six hours. It is, therefore, 6 o'clock P. M.-V. U., Eagle.

153.-A man bought sheep for $94; having lost 7, he sold of the remainder at prime cost, for $20. How many sheep had he at first? Arithmetical solution required.

Answers received from L. H. BRAINARD, Amherst; C. E. BUELL, Sun Prairie; M. E. C., S. D. F., JOHN HARDGROVE, W. H., A. A. KRAUSE, H. M. LEMON, Ripon; R. L., Mt. Sterling; JAS. LAWREY, Hazel Green; E. P., Poynette; G. H. TURNER, Albany, and V. U. Eagle. We give two of the answers.

If of the remainder cost $20, the entire remainder cost $80. Hence 7 cost 94-80-14. $14÷7=$2. $94÷$2.00=47 ans.-M. E. C., River Falls.

x4=80. 94-80=14+7=2 prime cost. 94+2=47 ans.-W. H.