Chorus: An elephunt, teacher.
Mistress: Yes, quite right.
This heresy shocked me; but etiquette again forbade that I should contradict her. Yet—for magis amica veritas—I might, and did, interpose a question:
“Which is the bigger, an elephant or a whale?” Chorus: A wheele.
The mistress looked scornfully at me, and returned the oblique shot:
“Is a whale an animal, children?” Chorus: Noo, teacher.
Mistress: What is a whale, children? Chorus: A fish.
I was roused to more defence of truth, though tacitly accepting the fishhood of whales: “Isn’t a fish an animal, children?” Chorus (sarcastically): Noo.
“Is a girl an animal?” Chorus: Noo.
“Is a girl a vegetable? Do you grow them in a garden, like cabbages?” Chorus: Noo.