During a great storm at sea, a learned man heard the skipper giving his orders, but could not understand a word. When the danger was past, he asked the skipper in what language he had spoken.

The sailor replied: ‘In my mother tongue, of course!’ The scholar expressed his regret that a man should have wasted half his life without learning to speak grammatically and intelligibly.

A few hours later the storm arose again, and this time the ship sprang a leak and began to founder. Then the captain went to the scholar and asked if he could swim.