Tobermory

The last line of Tobermory was very clever in a way. German irregular verbs are different from regular verbs in that you have to change the whole word when you conjugate them, not just the ending. In the context of the story I think this last line is important to the theme because its saying that to fix a problem, like Tobermory gossiping about all the bad things they've said and done, you have to eliminate the problem. In this case the problem was the people and their bad behavior, not Tobermory calling it like he saw it. Tobermory's death only changed the ending it didn't change the whole word. That is why the tone of the author was very sardonic toward the end. While at the same time saying that you can't really teach an animal new tricks, he was also saying that the same thing goes for humans.