Ramsey was tired of the song and tired of "My Country 'Tis of Thee"; they were bores, but it was amusing to sing them in German.

In German they sounded "sort o' funny," so he didn't mind this bit of the day's work.
Half an hour later there arrived his supreme trial of this particular morning.

Arithmetic then being the order of business before the house, he was sent alone to the blackboard, supposedly to make lucid the proper reply to a fatal conundrum in decimals, and under the glare and focus of the whole room he breathed heavily and itched everywhere; his brain at once became sheer hash.

He consumed as much time as possible in getting the terms of the problem stated in chalk; then, affecting to be critical of his own handiwork, erased what he had done and carefully wrote it again.

After that, he erased half of it, slowly retraced the figures, and stepped back as if to see whether perspective improved their appearance.