Mrs. Hill was proceeding to milk the cow, and her husband was busy at the wood-pile.  Coristine sauntered up to the old lady, and carried the milking pail and stool for her, the latter being of the Swiss description, with one leg sharp enough to stick into the ground.  The lawyer adroitly remarked:—­

“Turning to the subject of language, Mrs. Hill, one who has had your experience in education must have observed fashion in words as in other things, how liable speech is to change at different times and in different places.”

Yes; Mrs. Hill had noticed that.

“You will, I trust, not think me guilty of too great a liberty, if I say, in reference to my friend’s remark at the supper table, that gastronomy, instead of meaning the art of extracting gas from coal, has now come to denote the science of cookery or good living, and that the old meaning is now quite out of date.  I thought you would like to know of the change, which, I imagine, has hardly found its way into the country yet.”

“Certainly, sir, I am much obliged to you for setting me right so kindly.  Doubtless the change has come about through the use of gas stoves for cooking, which I have seen advertised in our Toronto religious paper.”

“I never thought of that,” said the perfidious lawyer.  “The very uncommon word deipnosophist, hardly an English word at all, when employed at the present day, always means a supper philosopher, one who talks learnedly at supper, either about cookery or about other things.”

“I see it very clearly now.  In town, of course, supper is taken by gas light, so that the talker at supper is a talker by gas-light?”

“Yes, but the word gas, even the idea of it, has gone out of fashion, through its figurative use to designate empty, vapouring talk; therefore, when deipnosophist and gastronomer are spoken, the former is employed to denote learned talkers at supper, such as we were half an hour ago, and the latter, to signify one who enjoys the culinary pleasures of the table.”

“I am sure I am very much indebted to you, sir, for taking the trouble to correct an old woman far behind the age, and to save her the mortification of making mistakes in conversation with those who might know better.”

“Do not mention it, I beg.  Should I, do you think, say anything of this to Mr. Hill?”

“Oh, no,” replied the old lady, laughingly; “he has forgotten all about these new words already; and, even if he had not, he would never dare to make use of them, unless they were in Shakespeare or the Bible or the School Readers.”

By this time the milking was over, and the lawyer, relieved in part, yet with not unclouded conscience, carried pail and stool to the milkhouse.

The old man and Coristine sat down on a bench outside the house and smoked their pipes.  Mrs. Hill occupied a rocking-chair just inside the doorway, and the dominie sat on the doorsill at her feet.