The master could not say that he had, intentionally.
"Haven't I studied ?" old Zack asked.
"You certainly have," the master admitted, laughing.
But the school agent was firm.

"You'll have to leave!" he exclaimed.
"You're too old and too big to come here!" "All the same, I'm comin' here," said old Zack.
"We'll see about that!" cried Moss angrily.

"The law is on my side!" That was the beginning of what is still remembered as "the war at the Mills schoolhouse." The agent appealed to the school board of the town, which consisted of three members,--two clergymen and a lawyer,--and the following day the board appeared at the schoolhouse.

After conferring with the master, they proceeded formally to expel old Zack Lurvey from school.
Old Zack, however, hotly defended his right to get an education, and a wordy combat ensued.
"You're too old to draw school money," the lawyer informed him.

"No money comes to you for schooling after you are twenty-one, and you look to be three times as old as that!" Thereupon old Zack drew out his pocketbook and laid down twenty dollars.
"There is your money," said he.