"No, no," interposed Challis impatiently, "he meant that the answer to your question was uncertain."
"How's that?" returned the grocer. "I've always understood——"
"Quite, quite," interrupted Challis. "But what we have always understood does not always correspond to the actual fact."
"What did you intend by your answer?" put in Elmer quickly, addressing the Wonder.
"The evidence rests mainly on Luke's Gospel," answered the Wonder, "but the phrase 'ἀρχόμενος ὡσὲι ἐτῶν τριάκοντα' is vague—it allows latitude in either direction. According to the chronology of John's Gospel the age might have been about thirty-two."
"It says 'thirty' in the Bible, and that's good enough for me," said the grocer, and Crashaw muttered "Heresy, heresy," in an audible under tone.
"Sounds very like blarsphemy to me," said Purvis, "like doubtin' the word of God. I'm for sending him to school."
Deane Elmer had been regarding the face of the small abstracted child with considerable interest. He put aside for the moment the grocer's intimation of his voting tendency.
"How many elements are known to chemists?" asked Elmer of the examinee.
"Eighty-one well characterised; others have been described," replied the Wonder.