The orator paused to get his breath.
"But, Cyrus, perhaps you can learn all those things later."
"But I want to know 'em now. Not the things I've just been reciting, the climate of Texas, the crops of New South Wales and the population of Wurtemburg. Hoh! I could be a teacher myself and tell things everybody knows already. Teachers are no smarter than anybody else. I asked her why some families, like the Herricks, have all boys and other families all girls."
"What did she say?"
"She just couldn't tell me. And she didn't like it when I asked her why God, who knows everything, should do foolish things."
"Oh, Cyrus!"
"Well, he makes warm days in April to start things going, then sends a sudden frost and nips the blossoms and kills the crops. Any fool farmer knows better than that."
Ruth frowned. "You should not say such things." But the orator ignored the rebuke. "Instead of telling me about the wrecks and ruins and the treasures and the forests at the bottom of the ocean, teacher tells me how many bales of cotton and barrels of molasses come from Alabama. Why, Ruthy, at the Island of St. Helena the ocean is nearly six miles deep!"
"But, Cyrus, nobody really knows just what lies at the bottom of the ocean."