“Thankee. As I says a while ago,” pursued Riderhood, changing his hoarse tone and leering round upon the class again, “though not a learned character my own self, I do admire learning in others, to be sure! Being here and having met with your kind attention, Master, might I, afore I go, ask a question of these here young lambs of yourn?”

“If it is in the way of school,” said Bradley, always sustaining his dark look at the other, and speaking in his suppressed voice, “you may.”

“Oh! It’s in the way of school!” cried Riderhood. “I’ll pound it, Master, to be in the way of school. Wot’s the diwisions of water, my lambs? Wot sorts of water is there on the land?”

Shrill chorus: “Seas, rivers, lakes, and ponds.”