“Oh, he just said something about being ‘frivolous.’ But the climax came a few minutes later when the Parson told how Cavier and other famous scientists had become so wondrously learned that they could tell what an animal was from the tiniest bit of its skeleton, its frame, as he called it. And that started Dewey. He put on his most serious face and told us how he’d read of a great mystery, a geologist who had found the frame of an animal hard as iron, and almost smashed to pieces in some rocks. There was what looked like the body of a man lying near. The first-mentioned thing, so Dewey said, had eighteen teeth in front and seven behind. And the geologist didn’t know what on earth it was.”
Mark interrupted himself here long enough to indulge in a little silent laughter, and then he went on.
“Well, the Parson took it seriously. He put on his most learned air, and looked it up in ‘Dana,’ his beloved geological text-book. ‘Eighteen in front and seven behind? The rear ones must be molars. Probably, then, it was a Palæothere, but they were extinct before primæval man appears. And it couldn’t be one of the Zenglodons, and surely not a Plesiosaurus. Oh, yes! Why, of course, it must be an Ichthyornis!’ And the Parson was smiles all over. ‘How stupid of that geologist not to have guessed it! An Ichthyornis!’ But then Dewey said no, it wasn’t. ‘Then what is it?’ cried the Parson.”
“And what did he say?” laughed Grace.
“He said it was a ’97 model, seventy-two gear, and the rider had coasted down the hill on it. The teeth weren’t molars, they were sprockets. Somebody yelled ‘Bicycle!’ and the Parson wouldn’t speak to him all day.”
The girl’s merry laughter over the story was pleasant to hear; it was a great deal more pleasant to Mark than the original incident had been.
“I think it’s a shame to fool him so,” said Grace. “The Parson is so solemn and dignified. And it hurts his feelings.”
“He gets over it all,” laughed Mark, “and then he enjoys it, too, else we wouldn’t do it; for every one of us likes our old geological genius. I don’t see what we should do without him. He knows everything under the sun, I’m sure, especially about fossils.”
“I don’t think it would be possible to fool him,” said she.
Mark chuckled softly to himself.