Show A prodigy in ayrshire there i is s a at t present presen t attending the hastings school darvel in ili ayrshire a girl aged between 8 and 9 years vears who commenced tile the study of a arithmetic less les than a twelvemonth ago such are the powers of her memory that she is now able to e calculate al mental in a very few moments such questions as these how many seconds in 20 80 90 or years how mally ounces in 20 60 or tolls tonsa she can multiply such a lille lineas it lid by 32 56 or 96 as cl cleverly everl y and correctly as any ordinary arithmetician would mul by 4 46 6 or 8 counts in ill long division sim file and compo compound una she divides by short di division vision i i or in one line by such figures as 34 56 72 af acm in eight eighnor or ten seconds the first time her teacher mr tarbet discovered her remarkable abilities was when she was showing him sums multiplied by numbers from 14 to which at first he thought she must have worked on oil the slate below and he alleged as much which she could by no means admit he then to test her told beito her to multiply a line of pounds shillings and I 1 pence which lie ile gave lier her by 72 to ilia his sw surprise prise she multiplied it as fast as any other person could have done by 7 I 1 I 1 yet this girl never learned the multiplication table higher than 12 times 13 12 she can al also add u up p eight or ten lines of pounds shillings gil aad pence by first adding the two lowest lines then tile third lowest and so aso on when performing perform i ng these calculations I 1 every eiery limb and feature beem seem at rest i one oae day lately the teacher set the door open and ordered the children to be quiet as he was going to gi give her the m most ost difficult count she had over ever got he then told her to walk out into the the gar garden en and count how many seconds there were vero in years ears she walked only about ten en yards at an ordinary pace when sherold she told the answer correctly never having garden albut but says days oneff one of the boys she did a far bigger count than that yesterday the biggest they say that ever was idone done lly by anybody she e multiplied by and gave th the cowed answer in less than half a minute abr ane bet of a penny which she refused refu to take because her ber teacher aad forbidden her in the presence of the scholars to calculate large larie sums at the bidding of any person on being interrogated as to how he knew whether the answer was correct corral the wi boy replied that t them hem had counted it I 1 i 4 on a slate and found pd it correct and nd mt t that ures unas were so far above hundreds of W ill none of them could read them the girs is margaret cleveland daughter 0 of gavin avin 1 s laud land shoemaker in darvel 4 rs r I 1 I 1 |