] _Loco!_
ROQUE. Aye, there he is! (_Calling._) _Loco! Loco!_
PANCHO (_calling_). _Loco! Loco!_
[_Enter_ COLUMBUS, _dignified and gentle. A crowd of_ BOYS _follow._]
ALL BOYS. _Loco! Loco! Loco! Loco!_
[_Enter_ SCHOOLMASTER, _carrying a switch._]
MASTER (_flourishing switch_). To school with you! To school now!
[_Boys run off in alarm._]
MASTER (_turning angrily upon Columbus_). You were teaching them your
foolish notions, sir!
COLUMBUS (_smiling_). I'd like the chance to do so, master.
MASTER. Ah, then you _have_ been at it! I saw them all about you!
COLUMBUS. I taught them nothing, master,--this time.
MASTER. 'T is well for you, sir, that you did not. The world is flat, sir,
flat! Do you not know that, sir?
COLUMBUS. I was so taught--
MASTER. How do you dare, then, to say the world is round?
COLUMBUS. Much study and common sense, dear master, have made me dare.
MASTER. The lessons taught your fathers are good enough for you, sir.
COLUMBUS. That cannot be, dear master. How, then, could the world move on?
MASTER. Move on? Hear him talk! Do you think, sir, that an elephant carries
this flat world on his back and walks about with it? Ha, ha!
[_Gates are opened;_ PORTER _is seen.
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