Noah Webster's wife entered the parlor in their home one day and caught her husband embracing the maid. "Noah!" she exclaimed. "I am surprised!"

Webster released the maid and assumed his customary professional demeanor. "No, my dear, it is I who am surprised," he declared. "You are merely astonished."

[Sadly, this tale is probably apocryphal.]

[The original title of Noah Webster's first spelling book? "A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, Comprising an Easy, Concise, and Systematic Method of Education, Designed for the Use of English Schools in America, Part I, Containing a New and Accurate Standard of Pronunciation."]