The Purist Purized (3-4)

Purist Oh, I am willing enough; only you have not made any solecisms in the usual sense.

Lycinus How about that last? Now watch me well, as you did not get me that time.

Purist I cannot say I did.

Lycinus Now for a rabbit, then; there, that’s him! Has he got by? There he is, that’s him, I tell you. Hims enough to fill a warren, if you don’t wake up.

Purist Oh, I am wide awake.

Lycinus Well, they are gone.

Purist Never!

Lycinus The fact is, your too much learning renders you unconscious to solecisms; whatever case I take, it is always the same.

Purist What you mean by that I am sure I don’t know; but I have often caught people out in blunders.

Lycinus Well, you will catch me about the time that you are a sucking child again. By the way, a babe laying in his cradle would hardly jar on your notions of grammar, if you have not yet got me.

Purist Well, I am convinced.

Lycinus Now, if we cannot detect blunders like these, we are not likely to know much about our own; you see, you have just missed another. Very well now, never again call yourself competent either to detect blunders or to avoid them.