There wuz a little Latin book with queer wood-cuts, "Concernin' Islands
lately discovered," published in Switzerland in 1494; under the title it
begun--"Christopher Colum--"

It made me mad to hear that good, noble creeter's name cut off and
demeaned, and I told Irena so.

And she sez, "That's what little Benjy calls our old white duck; his
name is Columbus, but he calls it Colum."

She is a great duck-raiser; but I didn't thank her for alludin' to
barn-yard fowls in such a time as this.

Wall, there wuz the first life of Columbus ever writ, by his son
Farnendo.

And a book relatin' to the namin' of America. I thought it would been a
good plan if there had been a few more about that, and had named it
Columbia--jest what it ort to be, and not let another man take the honor
that should have been Christopher's.

But I meditated on what a queer place this old world wuz, and how
nateral for one man to toil and work, and another step in and take the
pay for it; so it didn't surprise me a mite, but it madded me some.

Then there wuz the histories of the different cities where he wuz born,
and the different places where his bones repose.

Poor creeter! they fit then because they didn't want his bones, and they