“I beg your pardon, ma’am,” said Mary Anne, disconcerted now she came to think of it; “but I don’t know that I mean more than her brother himself.” As she said it, she unhooked her arm.

“I felt convinced of it,” returned Miss Peecher, smiling again. “Now pray, Mary Anne, be careful another time. He says is very different from they say, remember. Difference between he says and they say? Give it me.”

Mary Anne immediately hooked her right arm behind her in her left hand⁠—an attitude absolutely necessary to the situation⁠—and replied: “One is indicative mood, present tense, third person singular, verb active to say. Other is indicative mood, present tense, third person plural, verb active to say.”

“Why verb active, Mary Anne?”

“Because it takes a pronoun after it in the objective case, Miss Peecher.”