Father William, the priest, made it a practice to visit the

parish school one day a week.

He walked into the 4th grade

class, where the children were studying the states,

and asked them how many states they

could name. They came up with about 40 names. 

Father William jokingly told them that in his

day students knew the names

of all the states. One lad

raised his hand and said,

'Yes sir, but in those days there were only 13 states.’