[Elsie]

I had my 'I's dotted and 'T's crossed for the rest of the year and barely got a B.

Silly boy!

You dot your t's and cross your eyes for an "A"!

[Smokin' Joe]

That woman's interpretation of Mark Twain was enough to cross your eyes!

My grandfather got me started reading Twain, Arthur Connan Doyle, Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, HG Wells, and Dickens in grade school. Mom would quote Shakespeare around the house.

Of course, I was the one who asked why we didn't read Puddin'head Wilson (in a school with racial unrest going on)--she blanched at the suggestion.