Then an idea came from Billy. "He's just trying to fool us; that's what he's doing," replied the latter.
But the Professor was much in earnest. "Well," he at last remarked, "I am going to take this right up to the president of the college. It's a most important discovery. It's a palimpsest letter, probably one of the earliest transcriptions of the Epistles. Boys, this wonderful parchment is eighteen hundred years of age, perhaps."
Billy whistled, and Todd, seeing that his uncle did not object, whistled also. But when they were left alone, and their uncle had hurried out into the rain without an umbrella, they again held a consultation.
"We'd better tell him," said Todd, "that we only meant it for a valentine."
"He'll be awful mad," said Billy, quietly; "but I guess we had better tell him, as you say."
So they waited until their uncle returned. At supper he was still elated, and when the table had been cleared Todd opened the subject.
"Uncle Passmore," he inquired, "what is a palimpsest?"
"A palimpsest is a parchment that has once been written on, then used a second time; after the erasure of the first copy, however, very often the original shows through. It is the case with this."
"But what do those letters mean?"
"Oh, that is a hodgepodge," replied the Professor, pedanticly, "of Greek, Hebrew, Sanscrit, and something resembling Arabic. It means nothing; evidently some scribbles to pass away the time."