I
"'_Quem_, whom; _fugis_, are you avoiding; _ab demens_, you silly ass;
_habitarunt di quoque_, gods too have lived in; _silvas_, the woods.' Go
ahead!"
I always brighten the classics--it is part of my system--and therefore I
translated _demens_ by "silly ass." But Miss Beaumont need not have made
a note of the translation, and Ford, who knows better, need not have
echoed after me. "Whom are you avoiding, you silly ass, gods too have
lived in the woods."
"Ye--es," I replied, with scholarly hesitation. "Ye--es.
_Silvas_--woods, wooded spaces, the country generally. Yes. _Demens_, of
course, is _de--mens_. 'Ah, witless fellow! Gods, I say, even gods have
dwelt in the woods ere now.'"
"But I thought gods always lived in the sky," said Mrs. Worters,
interrupting our lesson for I think the third-and-twentieth time.
"Not always," answered Miss Beaumont. As she spoke she inserted "witless
fellow" as an alternative to "silly ass."
"I always thought they lived in the sky."
"Oh, no, Mrs. Worters," the girl repeated. "Not always." And finding her
place in the note-book she read as follows: "Gods. Where. Chief
deities--Mount Olympus. Pan--most places, as name implies.
Oreads--mountains. Sirens, Tritons, Nereids--water (salt). Naiads
--water (fresh). Satyrs, Fauns, etc.--woods. Dryads--trees."
"Well, dear, you have learnt a lot. And will you now tell me what good
it has done you?"
"It has helped me--" faltered Miss Beaumont. She was very earnest over
her classics. She wished she could have said what good they had done
her.
Ford came to her rescue, "Of course it's helped you. The classics are
full of tips. They teach you how to dodge things."