Doctor Dolittle and Algebra

Just came across this quote from Hugh Lofting's "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle".  The Doctor asks his friend Bumpo how he got on at Oxford, and he replies..

“I liked it all except the algebra and the shoes. The algebra hurt my head and the shoes hurt my feet. I threw the shoes over the wall as soon as I got out of the College quadrilateral this morning; and the algebra I am happily forgetting very fast...."

Reminds me of conversations with my calculus class...