"Because it showed that you did not know the difference between singular and plural."
"But I do know the difference—singular means one thing, and plural means more than one."
"Exactly, so now try to find out the blunder."
Charles repeated the words two or three times, "there goes two white horses;" but he could not find out what was wrong, and after puzzling for a long while, he was obliged to give it up, and his papa said,—"Suppose you had been talking about those horses before you saw them go by, should you have said, 'there they goes?'" "No," said Charles.
"I should have said—'there they go.'"
"And why should you have said so?"
"Because it is not right to say—'there they goes'; nobody says so, but very ignorant people indeed; I heard the butcher's boy say so one day; but then, you know, he is a poor ignorant boy and I dare say has never learnt any thing."
"How did you know that he was an ignorant boy, Charles?"
"I knew it by his speaking wrong, papa."
"Then you see it was true what I told you that if you speak wrong, people will directly think you are an ignorant person, as you thought the butcher's boy."