"First, there was star dust, and electricity or something made it into the earth; and some water and chemicals made life out of this electricity or something----" "Hey ?" said the startled Sharon, but the story of creation continued.
"And there was just little animals first, but they got to be bigger, because they had to change; and pretty soon they become monkeys, and then they changed some more, and stood up on their hind feet, and so they got to be human beings like us--because--because they had to change," he concluded, lucidly.
"My shining stars!" breathed Sharon.
"And they lost their tails and got so they would wear neckties and have post offices and depots and religions," added the historian in a final flash of memory.
"Well, I'll be switched!" said Sharon.
"It's electricity or something," explained the lecturer.

"My father said so." "Oh!" said Sharon.
"But he says there's a catch in it somewhere." "I should think there was," said Sharon.

"By gracious goodness, I should think there was a catch in it somewhere! But you understand the whole thing as easy as crack a nut, don't you ?" "Yes, sir," said Wilbur.
"Giddap there!" said Sharon.
Wilbur did not tell Winona of this day's encounter with an authentic Whipple.

He would have done so but for the dollar that Sharon absently bestowed upon him from a crumple of bills when he left the buggy at the entrance to Whipple Old Place.

Winona, he instantly knew, would counsel him to save the dollar, and he did not wish to save it.