This programme was carried out, and then the boys went home, feeling that they had had a little satisfaction from Herriman, after all.
Although a crowd refused to gather on the banks of the stream, yet the news of this exploit travelled throughout the village,—which established moralizing George’s theory,—and as each hero passed through his doors, a storm of righteous indignation burst over his devoted head; for very properly, honest parents were scandalized to find that their children could commit such atrocities.
Whether Bob still meditated vengeance is not known, as shortly after this occurrence, Mr. Herriman borrowed some of Mr. Horner’s romances, which so unhinged his mind that he turned gold-hunter,—or silver-hunter, he was not morally certain which,—and removed, with his family, to a far-off Territory, and the six heard of Bob no more.
Poor Bob! The horror of being swept over the falls made a deep, but not lasting, impression on his mind.
As for the six boys, they profited little by that lesson.
It would be wise to close this chapter here; but doubtless the reader is aware that the writer of this tale is not wise.
That night Marmaduke waded through the verb and adverb in five different grammars:—one, a dog’s-eared, battered, and soiled volume, which his father was supposed to have studied in his youth; another, a venerable ruin, which, tradition said, had been his grandfather’s; still another, his mother’s, whose bescribbled fly-leaves held the key to a long-buried and almost forgotten romance; his little brother’s “Elementary;” and his own “Logical and Comprehensive.”
What wonder is it that the poor boy went to bed with an aching head, feeling, like Stephen, that it is “all a muddle,” and that he did not understand it at all?
The object is not to ridicule the noble science of grammar, but to point the finger of scorn at those grammarians who suppose that children can understand that science; and also to check those juveniles who flatter themselves that they are perfect in it.