And another , `` Can you tell me the name of a place that nobody ever heard of , where nothing ever happened , in a country which has not been discovered yet ? '' And another , `` Can you show me how to correct this hopelessly corrupt passage of Graidiocolosyrtus Tabenniticus , on the cause why crocodiles have no tongues ? '' And so on , and so on , and so on , till one would have thought they were all trying for tide-waiters ' places , or cornetcies in the heavy dragoons . `` And what good on earth will it do you if I did tell you ? '' quoth Tom . Well , they did n't know that : all they knew was the examiner was coming . Then Tom stumbled on the hugest and softest nimblecomequick turnip you ever saw filling a hole in a crop of swedes , and it cried to him , `` Can you tell me anything at all about anything you like ? '' `` About what ? '' says Tom . `` About anything you like ; for as fast as I learn things I forget them again . So my mamma says that my intellect is not adapted for methodic science , and says that I must go in for general information . '' Tom told him that he did not know general information , nor any officers in the army ; only he had a friend once that went for a drummer : but he could tell him a great many strange things which he had seen in his travels . So he told him prettily enough , while the poor turnip listened very carefully ; and the more he listened , the more he forgot , and the more water ran out of him . Tom thought he was crying : but it was only his poor brains running away , from being worked so hard ; and as Tom talked , the unhappy turnip streamed down all over with juice , and split and shrank till nothing was left of him but rind and water ; whereat Tom ran away in a fright , for he thought he might be taken up for killing the turnip . But , on the contrary , the turnip 's parents were highly delighted , and considered him a saint and a martyr , and put up a long inscription over his tomb about his wonderful talents , early development , and unparalleled precocity . Were they not a foolish couple ? But there was a still more foolish couple next to them , who were beating a wretched little radish , no bigger than my thumb , for sullenness and obstinacy and wilful stupidity , and never knew that the reason why it could n't learn or hardly even speak was , that there was a great worm inside it eating out all its brains . But even they are no foolisher than some hundred score of papas and mammas , who fetch the rod when they ought to fetch a new toy , and send to the dark cupboard instead of to the doctor . Tom was so puzzled and frightened with all he saw , that he was longing to ask the meaning of it ; and at last he stumbled over a respectable old stick lying half covered with earth . But a very stout and worthy stick it was , for it belonged to good Roger Ascham in old time , and had carved on its head King Edward the Sixth , with the Bible in his hand .
`` You see , '' said the stick , `` there were as pretty little children once XXXXX you could wish to see , and might have been so still if they had been only left to grow up like human beings , and then handed over to me ; but their foolish fathers and mothers , instead of letting them pick flowers , and make dirt-pies , and get birds ' nests , and dance round the gooseberry bush , as little children should , kept them always at lessons , working , working , working , learning week-day lessons all week-days , and Sunday lessons all Sunday , and weekly examinations every Saturday , and monthly examinations every month , and yearly examinations every year , everything seven times over , as if once was not enough , and enough as good as a feast -- till their brains grew big , and their bodies grew small , and they were all changed into turnips , with little but water inside ; and still their foolish parents actually pick the leaves off them as fast as they grow , lest they should have anything green about them . ''
So about as for if like of than till with