"No," she answered, "it has helped to pass the time and I knows that a
noun is a tree."
"Oh, indeed!" quoth I. "And what more have you learned?"
"That if you add to a verb it's an adverb, though both are much of a
muchness, and an adjective is not like either, though they all has
summat to do with a tree we passed a long time ago."
At this I gasped and sinking down in a shady spot, fanned myself
feebly with my hat.
"My poor child," said I mournfully, "my poor--"
"I'm not your child!" she retorted. "And as for poor--what o' this?"
and she shook the bag at her girdle until the coins within it chinked.
"This is most distressing!" said I, shaking my head.
"What is?"
"A noun is not a tree--"
"You says it was--"
"I told you a tree was a noun--which is a very different thing."
"If a tree's a noun, a noun's a tree--or should be, and if 'tain't,
then grammar's foolish and I don't want none of it--"
"That sentence is execrable grammar, Diana, because two negatives make
a positive hence when you say 'you don't want none,' it really means
that you do want some--"
"I don't care!" she said in her sullen fashion.
"But you must--"
"Well, I shan't!"
"Don't be a naughty child, Diana! Please come and sit down."
"I hates your grammar--"
"The sun is very hot, Diana, so come and sit down here by me and let
us talk like the true friends I hope we are."
With a petulant gesture she obeyed; so there we sat side by side, our
backs to the broad bole of the great tree, a branch of which, drooping
low, made for us a green bower, as it were.
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