“Don't seem an easy death to me,” argued Okra, “but I ain't no scholard. What college did thou attend to, Tim?”
“I don't hold no diaploma,” responded Timothy, “though I attended to Wareham Academy quite a spell, the same time as your sister was goin' to Wareham Seminary where eddication is still bein' disseminated though of an awful poor kind, compared to the old times.”
“It's live an' larn,” said the storekeeper respectfully. “I never thought of a Seminary bein' a place of dissemination before, but you can see the two words is near kin.”
“You can't alters tell by the sound,” said Timothy instructively. “Sometimes two words'll start from the same root, an' branch out diff'rent, like 'critter' an' 'hypocritter.' A 'hypocritter' must natcherally start by bein' a 'critter,' but a critter ain't obliged to be a 'hypocritter' 'thout he wants to.”
“I should hope not,” interpolated Abel Day, piously. “Entomology must be an awful interest-in' study, though I never thought of observin' words myself, kept to avoid vulgar language an' profanity.”
“Husshon's a cur'ous word for a man,” inter-jected Bill Dunham with a last despairing effort. “I remember seein' a Husshon once that—”
“Perhaps you ain't one to observe closely, Abel,” said Timothy, not taking note of any interruption, simply using the time to direct a stream of tobacco juice to an incredible distance, but landing it neatly in the exact spot he had intended. “It's a trade by itself, you might say, observin' is, an' there's another sing'lar corraption! The Whigs in foreign parts, so they say, build stone towers to observe the evil machinations of the Tories, an' so the word 'observatory' come into general use! All entomology; nothin' but entomology.”
“I don't see where in thunder you picked up so much larnin', Timothy!” It was Abel Day's exclamation, but every one agreed with him.