Ms. Stella seemed to have been struggling some lately. She often spent time  during the day with her head down on her desk. We knew she loved us, and we loved her too, but we couldn't really figure out what her problem was.
She announced in words that couldn't be mistaken that it was time for math. We had finally figured out that this was her way of saying arithmetic, so we reached under our desk for our arithmetic books. 
“Page 64,” she said and we slowly found the place. We could have found it quicker but we didn't want to leave the impression that we were anxious to do it. “Now today we are going to start learning about square feet,” she said, while seeming to look right at Dooley and Cousin Billy Clyde.    
Dooley was the first to respond by saying, “Ms Stella I probably know more about feet than any other person in Needmore since I am the best tracker in the whole county.”   This opinion was quickly challenged by  Billy Clyde who asserted that Dooley wasn't even close to being the best tracker in the county.  
Ms Stella did her usual thing by breaking up the fuss that started between them about who was the best tracker, since other boys were already joining in the debate.
Anyway, Dooley continued, “There ain't no such thing as square feet.” He quickly launched into a lesson of his own about the shape of feet.    
“Humans got long feet with toes on the front end,” he said. “Now you take a coon or a possum, their back feet look a lot like people feet.  On the other hand a fox foot is a lot like a dog foot except smaller.” 
Dooley quickly continued with his foot lecture by describing the difference between a cow's foot and a horse's foot, and was proceeding to explain what the Bible said about eating animals which had divided hoofs when Ms. Stella told him to shut his mouth right now.     
But the usual question from Billy Clyde quickly followed. “Ms. Stella, why do we need to learn about square feet since we will never use that in our whole life?” He seemed to bring up that same argument in response to any lesson being taught.
Ms. Stella was a patient person, up to a point, and so she set out to show us how we might use this knowledge in our life on the farm. She used the example of the need arising to build a new barn, which was probably a mistaken strategy, but how could she have known that?    
“Now how big do you think an average barn is?” she asked the class.
 “I know the answer to that one,” Billy Clyde answered quick as a flash.“I just stepped ours off the other day and it is ten steps on one side and fifteen steps going the other way.   Course that is not exactly correct because whoever built it got it a little catagoggling and the long side is not the same on the right as it is on the left left side.”   
Ms Stella again told him to shut up and the tone of her voice made us think she was getting upset about something.   
“You don't measure buildings by steps you measure them by feet and it sounds like your barn is probably  thirty feet by forty five feet. Anyway moving on,” she said.    “You would need to determine the total square feet in order to estimate the cost of the barn, and the way to determine that is to multiply the width by the  length and the number you get is the total square feet.”  
Dooley was way ahead of everyone else on that answer. “Ms. Stella, Ms. Stella,” he raised he hand and blurted out the answer before anyone else had a chance. “That would make his barn exactly one hundred and fifty square steps.”     
Once again she seized control of the class before the debate went any further, since some of the smarty pants girls were calling out a different answer in spite of the fact that they knew almost nothing about barns in the first place.    
“Here is the reason you need to understand how to figure square feet because the larger the square footage, the cheaper per square foot the barn can be built,” she continued.  
Once again Dooley was on top of things.“I think I will build me one so big that the cost will get so low I can build it for nothing, and get it for free.”
Once again Ms. Stella leaned forward and put her head on the desk Of course like usual I kept quiet through the whole debate. I thought it was best to wait until after class to explain it to the other boys. Partly because Ms. Stella looked to be feeling bad, but also partly because she raised her head up off the desk and stared straight at me like she thought I had some part in the whole thing. And since I was clearly the best boy in the class I wanted to lead by example.  
My God is a kind and loving God who is long suffering toward us. Having said that a person can go too far with God and get themselves into bad trouble. 
Are you testing the patience of the Creator ?