“I am, of course,” answered the Judge.
“That is what I find all my friends answer,” said Pronoun. “When I ask them who is the most important, the first person in the world to them, they say I am; so my little I stands for the person who is speaking about himself, and I call it the first person.”
“Then who is the second person?” asked the Judge.
“You are, my lord,” answered Pronoun, bowing politely.
“You said just now that I was the first person,” said the Judge.
“Yes, my lord,” replied Mr. Pronoun, putting his hand on his breast; “I first, and you second.”
“But it ought to be I first, and you second,” said the Judge, angrily.
“That is exactly what I said, my lord,” repeated Pronoun. “I first, and you second.”
The Judge was getting so angry, that Pronoun’s friends began to tremble for his head, when suddenly Dr. Syntax rose and said: “The first person is always the person speaking, and the second is the person spoken to. Let every one in the court say, ‘I am the first,’ and we shall all be right, and all satisfied.”
“I first, we first,” they all shouted; “and you, you, you, only the second.”