"Phœbe Wise! What do you mean?"
"I mean just that. There wasn't any English language then. Besides—who's to say the old thing won't whirl us back to the days of the Greeks an' Romans? We could see Socrates and Pericles and Crœsus and——"
"Oh, I'd love to see Crœsus!" Rebecca broke in. "He's the richest man that ever lived!"
"Yes—and perhaps we'll go back of then and see Abraham and Noah."
"Ef we could see Noah, 'twould be worth while," said Rebecca. "Joe Forrest said he didn't believe about the flood. He said Noah couldn't hev packed all them animals in tight enough to hev got 'em all in the Ark. I'd like mighty well if I could ask Noah himself 'bout it."
"He couldn't understand ye," said Phœbe. "All he spoke was Hebrew, ye know."
"Oh!" exclaimed Rebecca. Then, after a pause: "S'pose we went back to the tower of Babel. Couldn't we find the folks that was struck with the English language an' get one of 'em to go back an' speak to Noah?"
"What good would that do? If he was struck with English he wouldn't know Hebrew any more. That's what made— But there!" she exclaimed, "what ninnies we are!"
There was a long pause. After many minutes, Rebecca asked one more question.
"Do you s'pose the flood would come up as fur's this, Phœbe?"