you ought to meet." I took the
pencil and wrote G O T. "Got. G-o-t, got."

Margery, her elbows on my knee and her chin resting on her hands,
studied the position.

"Yes, that's old 'got,'" she said.

"He's always coming in. When you want to say, 'I've got a bad pain, so I
can't accept your kind invitation'; or when you want to say, 'Excuse
more, as I've got to go to bed now'; or quite simply, 'You've got my
pencil.'"

"G-o-t, got," said Margery. "G-o-t, got. G-o-t, got."

"With appropriate action it makes a very nice recitation."

"Is that a 'g'?" said Margery, busy with the pencil, which she had
snatched from me.

"The gentleman with the tail. You haven't made his tail quite long
enough.... That's better."

Margery retired to her study charged with an entirely new inspiration,
and wrote her second manifesto. It was this:

G O T

"Got," she pointed out.

I inspected it carefully. Coming fresh to the idea Margery had treated
it more spontaneously than the other. But it was distinctly a "got." One
of the gots.

"Have you any more words?" she asked, holding tight to the pencil.

"You've about exhausted me, Margery."

"What was that one you said just now? The one you said you wouldn't say
again?"

"Oh, you mean 'inveigle'?" I said, pronouncing it differently this time.

"Yes; write that for me."

"It hardly ever comes in. Only when you are writing to your solicitor."

"What's 'solicitor'?"

"He's the gentleman who takes the money. He's _always_ coming in."

"Then write 'solicitor.'"

I took the pencil (it was my turn for it) and wrote SOLICITOR. Then I
read it out slowly to Margery, spelt it to her three times very
carefully, and wrote SOLICITOR again. Then I said it thoughtfully to
myself half-a-dozen times--"Solicitor." Then I looked at it wonderingly.

"I am not sure now," I said, "that there is such a word."

"Why?"

"I thought there was when I began, but now I don't think there can be.
'Solicitor'--it seems so silly."

"Let me write it," said Margery, eagerly taking the paper and pencil,
"and see if it looks silly."

She retired, and--as well as she could for her excitement--copied the
word down underneath. The combined effort then read as follows:

SOLICITOR
SOLICITOR
SOLCTOR

"Yes, you've done it a lot of good," I said. "You've taken some of the
creases out. I like that much better."

"Do you think there is such a word now?"

"I'm beginning to feel more easy about it. I'm n