“‘Etymology,’ answered Doddle, ‘is—is—an irregular pronoun.’
“‘Boy!’ cried the master sternly.
“‘Please, sir,’ pleaded Doddle, with deprecatory air, ‘I—I suppose I was thinkin’ o’ one o’ the other mologies, not the etty one.’
“‘Ha!’ ejaculated the master; ‘well, tell me, how many parts of speech are there?’
“‘Nineteen,’ answered the boy, quite confidently.
“‘Oh!’ exclaimed the master, with a good deal of sarcasm in his tone; ‘pray, name them.’
“In a very sing-song voice, and with an air of anxious simplicity, Doddle began, ‘Article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection, outerjection, beginning with ies in the plural—as, baby, babies; lady, ladies; hady, hadies. Please, sir, isn’t that last one a bad word?’
“‘The boy is a lunatic!’ muttered the master.
“The boys in the class were far past laughing now; we were absolutely stunned. The master seemed perplexed, for Doddle was gazing at him with a look of mild self-satisfaction.
“‘I say, Peterkin,’ whispered the boy next to me, ‘as sure as you’re alive that boy’s shamming stupid.’