Miss Richards was a teacher at a school for
boys and girls, She taught chemistry and physics from the lowest to the highest
classes in the school. Sometimes the new classes learnt rapidly, but sometimes
they were very slow, and then Miss Richards had to repeat things many times.
One year, the first class had been studying chemistry for several weeks
when Miss Richards suddenly asked, ‘What is water? Who knows? Hands up !’
There was silence for a few seconds, and Miss Richards felt saddened, but
then one boy raised his hand.
‘Yes, Dick ?’ said Miss Richards encouragingly. He was not one of the
brightest children in the class, so she was glad that he could answer.
‘Water is a liquid which has no colour until you wash your hands in it,
Miss. Then it turns black,’ the boy replied with great confidence.