r, so-called, that stands
next to them. I don't see why you should sneer at advertising. I should
never have known you, for instance, Mr. Pedagog, had it not been for Mrs.
Pedagog's advertisement offering board and lodging to single gentlemen
for a consideration. Nor would you have met Mrs. Smithers, now your
estimable wife, yourself, had it not been for that advertisement. Why,
then, do you sneer at the ladder upon which you have in a sense climbed
to your present happiness? You are ungrateful."

"How you do ramify!" said Mr. Pedagog. "I believe there is no subject in
the world which you cannot connect in some way or another with every
other subject in the world. A discussion of the merits of Shakespeare's
sonnets could be turned by your dexterous tongue in five minutes into a
quarrel over the comparative merits of cider and cod-liver oil as
beverages, with you, the chances are, the advocate of cod-liver oil as
a steady drink."

"Well, I must say," said the Idiot, with a smile, "it has been my
experience that cod-liver oil is steadier than cider. The cod-liver
oils I have had the pleasure of absorbing have been evenly vile, while
the ciders that I have drank have been of a variety of goodness, badness,
and indifferentness which has brought me to the point where I never touch
it. But to return to inventions, since you desire to limit our discussion
to a single subject, I think it is about the most interesting field of
speculation imaginable."

"There you are right," said Mr. Pedagog, approvingly. "There is
absolutely no limit to the possibilities involved. It is almost within
the range of possibilities that some man may yet invent a buckwheat cake
that will satisfy your abnormal craving for that delicacy, which the
present total output of this table seems unable to do."

Here Mr. Pedagog turned to his wife, and added: "My dear, will you
request the cook hereafter to prepare individual cakes for us? The Idiot
has so far monopolized all that have as yet appeared."

"It appears to me," said the Idiot at this point, "that _you_ are the
ramifier, Mr. Pedagog. Nevertheless, ramify as much as you please. I can
follow you--at a safe distance, of course--in the discussion of anything,
from Edison to flapjacks. I think your suggestion regarding individual
cakes is a good one. We might all have separate griddles, upon which
Gladys, the cook, can prepare them, and on these griddles might be cast
in bold relief the crest of eac