CHAPTER XIII.
PREPOSITION.
UP
A LADDER
DOWN THE HILL
PREPOSITIONS·
“TO, from, of, for, over, under, on, near, at, by, in, among, before, behind, up, down—— Pray, who is the owner of all these little creatures?” said Judge Grammar, the next day. “Mr. Noun, are they yours?”
“No, indeed, my lord,” answered Mr. Noun, “they are not the names of any one or anything that I ever heard of.”
“Dr. Verb, are they yours?”
“I should not object to having them, my lord,” answered Dr. Verb, “if I could do anything with them; but they seem to me neither to be nor to do, nor to suffer any——”
“That will do,” interrupted the Judge, afraid that Dr. Verb was beginning one of his long speeches. “Mr. Adjective, do you claim them?”
“They do not qualify anything, my lord,” answered Adjective; “indeed, they seem to me poor, useless, silly, little——”
“We do not want you to qualify them, thank you,” said the Judge, “but to tell us if they are yours. Article, we know, has only a or an and the, so they cannot be his. Mr. Pronoun, do they belong to you?”