"Mr. Richmond knows, I suppose," said Norton.
"I suppose he knows Greek," said Miss Redwood, "and ever so many other queer tongues too, I've no doubt; but I should like to see myself askin' him to learn me. No, I mean, as I never knew nobody that I'd ask. La! there's folks enough that knows. Only I never had no chances for them things."
"I could shew you where Switzerland is, if you had a map," said Norton.
"I guess I know as much as that myself," said the housekeeper quietly, opening the stove door again for a peep at the oven. "But what does that tell me? I see a little spot o' paper painted green, and a big spot along side of it painted some other colour; and the map is all spots; and somebody tells me that little green spot is Switzerland. And I should like to know, how much wiser am I for that? That's paper and green paint; but what I want to know is, where is the place."
"It's hard to tell," said Norton, so much amused that he forgot his commission.
"Well, these folks come from Switzerland, you say. How did they come?"
"They came in a ship—part of the way."
"How fur in a ship?"
"Three thousand miles."
"Three thousand," repeated Miss Red wood. "When you get up there, I don't know what miles mean, no more than if you spoke another language. I understand a hundred miles. It's nigh that to New York."