Page:Tudor Jenks--Imaginotions.djvu/101

Rh He turned sharply upon me, and exclaimed:

"You great hulking booby, do you expect me to bore myself by giving lessons in primary science to a cross-grained, disobliging fellow who will not take the trouble to tell me who excited the states, who Shakespeare is, or to read me even one of his plays? No, sir! . As to going back where I came from, I would be glad to rid you of my presence instantly—if only I knew how."

"I 'll try it, anyhow!" I cried, so angry that I hardly knew what I said. "You came out of my microscope, and into it you shall go again!" I caught him up, dropped him into the tube, screwed on the top, and was pleased to see the little black spot reappear in the disk. Opening the window, I threw out the disk, and was amazed to see that, instead of falling, it floated away through the motionless air like a piece of thistle-down before a summer breeze. It soon left the area of light coming from my window, and was lost to view.

"Aha!" I said, with deep satisfaction. "Now you can go back where you came from!"

I sat down beside my table, and, as my anger cooled, began to think it all over. At first I felt great relief to be rid of the little pest, who fretted me by his pertinacity and piqued my self-esteem by his air of superiority.

But gradually my temper cooled, and as I recovered my sane judgment I began to reflect that ordinary civility to the little manikin might have induced him to tell me enough to have secured me fame and fortune, or even to have made me a benefactor to my whole race; and I felt bitter shame that my ill humor and foolish pride had caused me pettishly to throw away an opportunity greater than had ever been granted to any human being.

Still, he was so provoking and so altogether irritating that I am inclined to think you yourself would have done very much the same.