honor of shaking hands with a gaffer. "By the way," added the
Doctor, "I have often wondered why it is you are called a gaffer.
What is the meaning of the word?"
"I don't know; it's a name we're called
by," said the man. "The foreman of any other factory than glass
works is called a foreman or boss,-- or superintendent, if you
wish to be very smart. But the foreman of a glass-house is always
called the gaffer,-- though I doubt if any one can tell you
why."
"Ah! I have it! I have it!" cried the
Doctor, tapping Lawrence on the shoulder with his cane in such a
way that the boy suspected he had "had it" all the while,-- for
he was a knowing old head, and he had a habit of testing other
people's knowledge of a subject before bringing out his own. "But
I sha' n't tell; for if it gets out I shall lose the honor of the
discovery. I'll send the word, with the etymology, to one of
the big-dictionary makers. For you won't find it in any dictionary
as a name applied to the foreman of a glass-house. You'll find
'GAFFER; AN OLD MAN,' gaffer
and gammer being ancient abbreviations of grandfather
and grandmother."
"I have it! I have it!" cried Lawrence,
in his turn, having caught the bait his uncle threw out; for it
was also the Doctor's habit, in keeping back his knowledge of a
question, to let fall hints which should lead his young friends
to solve it for themselves, thus developing their thinking
faculties, and fixing more securely in their minds what they
learned.
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