error.

"You'll find it all in the grammar," she went on. "There's something
else I noticed in your speech. You say 'don't' when you shouldn't.
'Don't' is a contraction and stands for two words. Do you know them?"

He thought a moment, then answered, "'Do not.'"

She nodded her head, and said, "And you use 'don't' when you mean 'does
not.'"

He was puzzled over this, and did not get it so quickly.

"Give me an illustration," he asked.

"Well--" She puckered her brows and pursed up her mouth as she thought,
while he looked on and decided that her expression was most adorable.
"'It don't do to be hasty.' Change 'don't' to 'do not,' and it reads,
'It do not do to be hasty,' which is perfectly absurd."

He turned it over in his mind and considered.

"Doesn't it jar on your ear?" she suggested.

"Can't say that it does," he replied judicially.

"Why didn't you say, 'Can't say that it do'?" she queried.

"That sounds wrong," he said slowly. "As for the other I can't make up
my mind. I guess my ear ain't had the trainin' yours has."