"Call them what you like! Alligators and crocodiles are the same."
"Another atrocity! Where did you learn that?"
"Why, man, it is a well-known fact that the alligator and crocodile only differ in name. Here is Don Lorenzo, who has traveled, and can tell us whether it is not so."
"The alligator is rather smaller," observed Don Lorenzo, with a conciliatory smile.
"The size is of little consequence. The question is whether it has the same form or not."
Don Lorenzo nodded in sign of assent. Maza jumped up in a fury:
"But, gentlemen! But, gentlemen! Are we among cultivated people or among country clowns? Where do you find that crocodiles are the same as alligators? The crocodile is an animal of the Old World, and the alligator of the New."
"Excuse me, friend Maza, but I have seen crocodiles in the Philippines," returned Don Rudesindo.
"Well, and what if you have?"
"Because you say crocodiles don't belong to the Old World—"