"Not heard of them!" I exclaimed. "Well, I suppose you have heard of
some of my great countrymen: Beaconsfield, Gladstone, Darwin,
Burne-Jones, Ruskin, Queen Victoria, Tennyson, George Eliot, Herbert
Spencer, General Gordon, Lord Randolph Churchill--"

As he continued to shake his head after each name I at length paused.

"Who are all these people you have named?" he asked.

"They are all great and illustrious men and women who have a world-wide
reputation," I answered.

"And are there no more of them--have you told me the names of _all_
the great people you have ever known or heard of?" he said, with a
curious smile.

"No, indeed," I answered, nettled at his words and manner. "It would
take me until to-morrow to name _all_ the great men I have ever
heard of. I suppose you have heard the names of Napoleon, Wellington,
Nelson, Dante, Luther, Calvin, Bismarck, Voltaire?"

He still shook his head.

"Well, then," I continued, "Homer, Socrates, Alexander the Great,
Confucius, Zoroaster, Plato, Shakespeare." Then, growing thoroughly
desperate, I added in a burst: "Noah, Moses, Columbus, Hannibal, Adam
and Eve!"

"I am quite sure that I have never heard of any of these names," he