But in that he was--to use the usual Flat Creek locution--in that he was "a boss." This genius for spelling is in some people a sixth sense, a matter of intuition.

Some spellers are born, and not made, and their facility reminds one of the mathematical prodigies that crop out every now and then to bewilder the world.

Bud Means, foreseeing that Ralph would be pitted against Jim Phillips, had warned his friend that Jim could "spell like thunder and lightning," and that it "took a powerful smart speller" to beat him, for he knew "a heap of spelling-book." To have "spelled down the master" is next thing to having whipped the biggest bully in Hoopole County, and Jim had "spelled down" the last three masters.

He divided the hero-worship of the district with Bud Means.
For half an hour the Squire gave out hard words.

What a blessed thing our crooked orthography is! Without it there could be no spelling-schools.