“You must think we're a queer lot down here by the Bluffs, Mr. Bangs,” she said. “Primmie—you've seen what she is—and Zach Bloomer and Cap'n Jethro with his 'spirit revelations.' As I say, if it wasn't for Lulie I don't know what I should do. Get to be cracked myself, I presume likely.... But there,” she added, brightening, “do let's change the subject, for mercy sakes! Mr. Bangs, what do you suppose I did when I was over at the light this afternoon? Besides talkin' with Lulie, I mean.”
“Why—why, I don't know, I'm sure.”
“I don't believe you could guess, either. I looked up 'archaeologist' in the dictionary.”
Mr. Bangs blinked surprise behind the spectacles.
“In the—in the dictionary?” he repeated. “Oh—ah—dear me! Really!”
“Yes. I'm afraid you'll think I am awfully ignorant, but to save my soul I couldn't think what an archaeologist did, what sort of a business it was, I mean. Of course, I knew I OUGHT to know, and that I did know once, but it seemed to be perfectly certain that I didn't know THEN. So I looked it up. It fits in with what you told Primmie and me about travelin'—that camel driver creature and all—and yet—and yet, you know, I was surprised.”
“Surprised? Really? Yes, of course, but—but why?”
“Well, because somehow you don't look like that kind of man. I mean the kind of man who travels in all sorts of wild places and does dangerous things, you know, and—”
Galusha's desire to protest overcame his politeness. He broke in hurriedly.
“Oh, but I'm not, you know,” he cried. “I'm not really. Dear me, no!”