If this is true, it is a strange thing; but here's something that seems even stranger still:
The Guinea-pig is not a pig, and there are no Guinea-pigs in Guinea. However, there are plenty in Guiana, and, as the names of these places are very much alike, perhaps people got mixed in calling them. The places are far enough apart, though, I believe; but this you can see by your maps.
At any rate, the Guinea-pig is a sort of cousin of the squirrel and rabbit, and is fond of potato and apple peelings, carrot-tops, parsley, and cabbage; but he likes best the leaves from the tea-pot.
Well, well! How much the dictionary men have to answer for! Now, who, without them, ever would have thought that the name "Jack"--my name--is sometimes used in an offensive sense?
For instance, as I'm told, these fellows make out that "Jack Frost" means a mischievous boy; "Jack Towel" is a servants' towel; and a "Jack" is a machine to do the work of a common work-man, to lift heavy weights. Then there's a "Boot Jack," taking the place of a servant; a "Smoke Jack," another servant, to turn a spit; a "Jack-a-Napes," or saucy fellow; "Jack Tar," a common sailor; and "Jacket," a little Jack or coat.
Now, I'm half inclined to take this ill of the dictionary men. But perhaps I'm misinformed about them.
This is not slang, my dears; not a bit of it. It is but the translation of an inscription on an ancient Egyptian ball, a leaden one, used as a kind of bullet and thrown from a sling. Sometimes the name of the slinger was put on the ball,--so that the wounded could tell whom to thank, perhaps.
The phrase "Take that!" has not entirely gone out of fashion, I believe; and yet the world ought to be old enough to know better, by this time.
Talking about ants last month put me in mind of a scrap, written long ago by the Little Schoolma'am, and which one of my chicks sent to me. Here it is, with the picture that belongs to it:
[Illustration: "AND AWAY WENT THE PIECE OF BREAD!"]
"Hurrah!" said an ant to her sister, "I've found a nice piece of bread; We may push and pull, to carry it home, Where the little ants wait to be fed."
So one pulled till she fell over backward, And the other pushed with her head, When down came a thief of a sparrow, And away went the piece of bread!