“I don’t read nothin’.”

“Well, listen to this:

“‘I come from haunts of coot and hern,

I make a sudden sally

And sparkle out among the fern

To bicker down a valley!’”

“Sally is a girl’s name,” said Abe, whose brows had grown wrinkled from concentrated attention.

“I don’t think you quite got the idea of those lines,” said Clarence suavely. “But just listen to this:

“‘I chatter, chatter as I flow

To join the brimming river;