Theatres.  When the players were servants of the king, they were compelled to be proficient in reading, riting, rithmetic, rhyming, riddling, reciting, rehearsing, and romping.  These accomplishments were grouped together and called the 8 r’s, which name naturally enough was soon applied to the play-houses.  This example shows how simple the whole subject is, and how easily the philology business could he run by a child six years of age.

Country.  The origin of this word is, to say the least, odd.  City people were accustomed to visit the rural districts at about the time when rye was ripe, and they were generally amused by the farmer’s pereginations around his rye.  Farmers always count rye-stacks in the morning, in order to discover whether any of them have been lifted during the night.  When, upon their return to the City, the visitors were asked where they had been, they facetiously replied, “To count rye.”  This soon became a favorite expression; the “e” was dropped for euphony, and the rural districts were called country.

Spittoon.—­This word comes from the Greek word spit, meaning to slobber, and the Scotch word, tune, meaning the noise made by the bag-pipes.  As the saliva struck the receptacle it made a noise delightful to the ears of the smoker, and resembling the note of the national instrument of Scotland.  Hence the receptacle was called the spittoon.

Politics.—­Quack philologists, who evidently were insane, have gone back to the classics for the root of this word, when it is well known that immediately after the termination of the Revolution, when the Government of this country was about to be settled, the word came into existence.  A woman, called POLLY, kept a corner grocery in New York, and all the fellows who wanted offices were accustomed to go to POLLY’S for their beer, because she trusted.  Here they usually divulged their ideas of the manner in which the Government machine should be run.  When asked why they went to that store, they always answered, “POLLY ticks.”  Outsiders, when asked what was going on in POLLY’s store, always answered with a wise look, “POLLY ticks.”  The words soon spread, and talking about the Government was facetiously called POLLY ticks.  The expression was finally used in earnest, and, by euphoric changes, reached its present shape.

Cheese-it.—­This compound word has by some silly person been traced to the Saxon cyse, meaning condensed cow, and the Celtic it, meaning it.  Now every way-faring man, even though non compos mentis, knows that when he is invited to come in and cut a cheese, come in and take a drop of whiskey is meant.  This word, then, is derived from the Sanscrit cheese, meaning drop, and the English it, meaning whatever you may happen to be saying, and the whole expression may be properly translated “drop that yarn.”

I might go on straight through the Dictionary, but I refrain, desiring only to show you what a light and entertaining subject philology is, and what quantities of fun you can get out of it on winter evenings.