not
realize the terrors of your situation until you cease to be susceptible
to them. Furthermore, I do not believe in suicide. It is, in my
judgment, the worst crime a man can commit, and I cannot but admire the
remarkable discernment evinced by the Fates in making of it its own
inevitable capital punishment. A man may commit murder and escape death,
but in the commission of suicide he is sure of execution. Just as Virtue
is its own reward, so is Suicide its own amercement."

"Been reading the dictionary again?" asked the Poet.

"No, not exactly," said the Idiot, with a smile, "but--it's a kind of
joke on me, I suppose--I have just been stuck, to use a polite term, on
a book called Roget's _Thesaurus_, and, if I want to get hold of a new
word that will increase my seeming importance to the community, I turn
to it. That's where I got 'amercement.' I don't hold that its use in
this especial case is beyond cavil--that's another Thesaurian term--but
I don't suppose any one here would notice that fact. It goes here, and I
shall not use it elsewhere."

"I am interested to know how _you_ ever came to be the owner of a
_Thesaurus_," said the School-master, with a grim smile at the idea of
the Idiot having such a book in his possession. "Except on the score of
affinities. You are both very wordy."

"Meaning pleonastic, I presume," retorted the Idiot.

"I beg your pardon?" said the School-master.

"Never mind," said the Idiot. "I won't press the analogy, but I will say
that those who are themselves periphrastic should avoid criticising
others for being ambaginous."

"I think you mean ambiguous," said the School-master, elevating his
eyebrows in triumph.

"I thought you'd think that," retorted the Idiot. "That's why I used the
word 'ambaginous.' I'll lend you my dictionary to freshen up your
phraseology. Meanwhile, I'll tell you how I happened to get a
_Thesaurus_. I thought it was an animal, and when I saw that a New York
bookseller had a lot of them marked down from two dollars to one, I sent
and got one. I thought it was strange for a bookseller to be selling
rare animals, but that was his business, not mine; and as I was anxious
to see what kind of a creature a _Thesaurus_ was, I invested. When I
found out it was a book and not a tame relic of the antediluvian animal
kingdom, I thought I wouldn't say anything about it, but you people here
are so inquisitive you've learned my secret."

"And wasn't it an animal?" aske