VI Mr. O’Neill is the master in the fourth class at school.We call him Dotty because he’s small like a dot. He teaches in the one classroom with a platform so that he can stand above us and threaten us with his ash plant and peel his apple for all to see.The first day of school in September he writes on the blackboard three words which are to stay there the rest of the year, Euclid, geometry, idiot. He says if he catches any boy interfering with these words that boy will go through the rest of  his  life  with  one  hand. He  says  anyone  who  doesn’t  understand the  theorems  of  Euclid  is  an  idiot.  Now,  repeat  after  me, Anyone who doesn’t understand the theorems of Euclid is an idiot. Of course we all know what an idiot is because that’s what the masters keep telling us we are. Brendan Quigley raises his hand. Sir, what’s a theorem and what’s a Euclid? We expect Dotty to lash at Brendan the way all the masters do when you ask them a question but he looks at Brendan with a little smile. Ah, now, here’s a boy with not one but two questions.What is your name, boy? Brendan Quigley, sir. This is a boy who will go far.Where will he go, boys? Far, sir. Indeed and he will.The boy who wants to know something about 151