"That's it!" cried Jim enthusiastically. "That's it! I can larn that way sure."
"Learn, not larn, Jim."
Jim looked at her. "'Tis learn and not larn I'll be sayin'," he declared.
"Not I'll be sayin'," corrected Miss Slocum, "but I'll say."
"Learn, not larn, and I'll say, not I'll be sayin'," amended the obedient Jim, and then he sped away.
And that night he did what never a child of Mrs. O'Callaghan's had done before. The family were at supper. Pat, paying good heed to his tongue, was manifestly improving, and the widow was congratulating him in her own way.
"What did I be sayin' to you, Pat dear? Did I be tellin' you you wasn't too old to larn? And I'll be sayin' it again, so I will."
"Larn's not the right of it," interrupted Jim. "Learn's what you ought to be sayin'. I'll be sayin' ain't right, nayther," he continued. "It's I'll say," and he looked very important.
Pat and Andy regarded him in displeased astonishment, but the widow could take care of her own.
"And it's glad I am to see that you know so much, Jim," she said quietly. "What more do you know? Let's hear it."