your opinion's not wanted and you're not spoke to, don't you give an
opinion and don't you speak. The world's undergone a nice alteration
since my time, certainly. My belief is that there an't any boys
left--that there isn't such a thing as a boy--that there's nothing now
between a male baby and a man--and that all the boys went out with his
blessed Majesty King George the Second.'

'That's a very true observation, always excepting the young princes,'
said the parish-clerk, who, as the representative of church and state in
that company, held himself bound to the nicest loyalty. 'If it's godly
and righteous for boys, being of the ages of boys, to behave themselves
like boys, then the young princes must be boys and cannot be otherwise.'

'Did you ever hear tell of mermaids, sir?' said Mr Willet.

'Certainly I have,' replied the clerk.

'Very good,' said Mr Willet. 'According to the constitution of mermaids,
so much of a mermaid as is not a woman must be a fish. According to the
constitution of young princes, so much of a young prince (if anything)
as is not actually an angel, must be godly and righteous. Therefore if
it's becoming and godly and righteous in the young princes (as it is
at their ages) that they should be boys, they are and must be boys, and
cannot by possibility be anything else.'

This elucidation of a knotty point being received with such marks of
approval as to put John Willet into a good humour, he contented himself
with repeating to his son his command of silence, and addressing the
stranger, said: