"Why, Noah," she exclaimed, "I am surprised!"
The lexicographer regarded his wife disapprovingly, and rebuked her:
"_You_ are astonished--_I_ am surprised."
SAFETY FIRST
"Come over here!" called a friend to an intoxicated citizen whom he saw across the street.
The man addressed blinked and shook his head.
"Come over there?" he called back. "Why, it"s all I can do to stay where I am."
Amos Perkins was hired in the spring to shoot muskrats, which were overrunning the mill dam. An acquaintance paused to chat one day with Amos, who was sitting at ease on the bank of the stream, his gun safely out of reach.
"I hear the muskrats are undermining the dam," the acquaintance said.
"So they be, so they be!" Amos agreed.
"Hi! there goes one!" cried the visitor, pointing. "Shoot! Why don"t you shoot, man?"
Amos spat tobacco juice emphatically, and answered: "Huh! think I want to lose my job?"
The disgruntled fisherman at the club lifted his voice and complained loudly. He protested against the base trickery of his two companions on the trip.
"It was agreed," he explained, "before we started, that the one who caught the first fish must stand treat to a supper. Now, you"d hardly believe it, but it"s a fact that when we got to fishing, both those fellows deliberately refused to pull in their lines when they had bites, just so I"d be stuck."
"That was a mean trick," one of the auditors a.s.serted sympathetically.
"How much did the supper cost you?"
The grouchy fisherman relaxed slightly.
"Oh," he explained, "it wasn"t as bad as that. You see, I didn"t have any bait on my hook."
A G. A. R. veteran told to some members of the American Legion the story of a private in the Civil War, who during the first battle of Bull Run found a post hole into which he lowered himself, so that only his eyes were above the level of the ground. An officer, noting this display of cowardice, darted to the spot, and with a threatening gesture of his sword, shouted fiercely, "get out of that hole!"
But the skulker did not come out. On the contrary, he put his thumb to his nose and waggled his fingers insultingly.
"Not on your life," he retorted. "Hunt a hole for yourself. This belongs to me."
The woman hesitated over buying the silver service.
"Of course," she said, "I take your word for it that it"s solid silver, but somehow it doesn"t look it."
"A great advantage, ma"am," the shopkeeper declared suavely. "That service can be left right out in plain sight, and no burglar will look at it twice."
SANITY
It is a matter of uncommon knowledge that personal perfection is a most trying thing to live with. In the United States recently, a woman sued for divorce, alleging in the complaint against her husband that he had no faults. It was probably a subtle subconscious realization of the unpleasantness, even the unendurableness, of perfection in the domestic companionship that caused the obvious misprint in the following extract from a Scotch editorial concerning the new divorce legislation:
"But the Bill creates new grounds for the dissolution of the marriage bond, which are unknown to the law of Scotland. Cruelty, incurable sanity, or habitual drunkenness are proposed as separate grounds of divorce."
SARCASM
The noted story-teller at a dinner party related an anecdote, and was at first gratified by the hearty laughter of an old lady among the guests, and later a little suspicious, as her mirth continued. As he stared at her, puzzled, she spoke in explanation:
"Oh, that story is such a favorite of mine: the first time I heard it I laughed so hard that I kicked the foot-board off my crib."
The ponderous judge interrupted the eloquent lawyer harshly:
"All you say goes in at one ear and out at the other."
"What is to prevent it?" was the retort.
SAVING
A servant, who indulged in sprees during which he spent all his money, was advised by his master to save against a rainy day. A week later, the master inquired if any saving had been accomplished.
"Oh, yes, indeed, sir," the servant responded. "But, you see, sir, it rained yesterday, and it all went."
SCHEDULE
Cooks" tourists travel exactly according to schedule. The following conversation was overheard in Rome between a mother and daughter:
"Is this Rome, ma?"
"What day of the week is it, Matilda?"
"Tuesday. What of it?"
"If it"s Tuesday, it must be Rome."