“We?”

“Me and Mrs. Smith. She has a lovely alto.”

I goes over and talks to Ricky.

“Ricky, you knows something about music—what is a alto?”

Ricky thinks deep for a while, and then he says:

“Ike, did yuh ever let out a whoop, and then hear the same whoop come back to yuh? That’s it?”

“I thought that was a echo.”

“Yeah, sure; but that’s only when yuh hear one reply. Sabe? When yuh hears two replies—that’s alto. It’s a Hungarian word, which means two.”

“What does it mean when you hears more than two?”

“That’s basso profundo, Ike.”