“Excuse me, Cap’n Clark?”
“Yes, Sergeant Ordway?”
“You misspelled ‘Ocean.’”
“No, I didn’t.”
“In your journal, you just wrote, ‘Ocian in view! O! The joy!”
“So?”
“The word ‘Ocean’ is spelled with an ‘e-a’ not an ‘i-a.’”
“It is?”
“When President Jefferson reads your journal, he’ll think you’re uneducated.”
“Well, I didn’t attend school like Captain Lewis, but I was taught at home.”
“Then correct the spelling.”
“No. I think I’ll leave it. Years from now, people will think it looks quaint.”
“Perhaps. But there’s this other thing . . .”
“What’s that?”
“You can’t see the ocean from here.”
“Yes, Sergeant Ordway?”
“You misspelled ‘Ocean.’”
“No, I didn’t.”
“In your journal, you just wrote, ‘Ocian in view! O! The joy!”
“So?”
“The word ‘Ocean’ is spelled with an ‘e-a’ not an ‘i-a.’”
“It is?”
“When President Jefferson reads your journal, he’ll think you’re uneducated.”
“Well, I didn’t attend school like Captain Lewis, but I was taught at home.”
“Then correct the spelling.”
“No. I think I’ll leave it. Years from now, people will think it looks quaint.”
“Perhaps. But there’s this other thing . . .”
“What’s that?”
“You can’t see the ocean from here.”
