The kind lady stopped to tell the sobbing little girl not to cry, and she offered as a convincing argument:
"You know it makes little girls homely."
The child stared belligerently at the benevolent lady, and then remarked:
"You must have cried an awful lot when you was young."
TENDER MEMORIES
"Please tell me, James," directed the young lady teacher, "where shingles were first used?"
"I could, ma"am," little Jimmie replied in great embarra.s.sment, "but I"d rather not."
TERMINOLOGY
When the bishop was entertained at an English country house, the butler coached carefully the new boy who was to carry up the jug of hot water for shaving in the morning.
"When you knock," the butler explained, "and he asks, "Who"s there?"
then you must say, "It"s the boy, my Lord.""
The lad, in much nervous trepidation, duly carried up the hot water, but in answer to the bishop"s query as to who was at the door, he announced:
"It"s the Lord, my boy!"
The butler overheard and was horrified. He hammered into the youth"s consciousness, the fact that a bishop must be addressed as my lord.
Finally, he was satisfied that the boy understood, and permitted him to a.s.sist in serving the dinner that night. The youngster was sent to the bishop to offer a plate of cheese. With shaking knees, he presented the dish to the prelate, and faltered:
"My G.o.d, will you have some cheese?"
The master of the house returned from business somewhat early. He did not find his wife about, and so called downstairs to the cook:
"Bridget, do you know anything of my wife"s whereabouts?"
"No, sor," Bridget answered, "Sure, I know nothin" but I"m thinkin", sor, it"s likely they"re in the wash."
TESTIMONY
Paul Smith, the famous hotel-keeper in the Adirondacks, told of a law suit that he had with a man named Jones in Malone.
"It was this way: I sat in the courtroom before the case opened with my witnesses around me. Then Jones bustled in. He stopped abruptly, and looked my witnesses over carefully. Presently he turned to me.
""Paul," he asked, "are those your witnesses?"
""They are," I replied.
""Then you win," he exclaimed. "I"ve had them witnesses twice myself.""
The grateful woman on the farm in Arkansas wrote to the vendors of the patent medicine:
"Four weeks ago I was so run down that I could not spank the baby. After taking three bottles of your Elegant Elixir I am now able to thrash my husband in addition to my other housework. G.o.d bless you!"
In one of the most desolate areas of Montana, a claim was taken by a man from Iowa. The nearest neighbor, from twenty miles away, visited the homesteader"s shack, and introduced himself.
"Where did you come from?" the visitor inquired presently, and when he had been told:
"I can"t understand why anybody should want to get out of that civilized country to come and live in this lonesomeness."
"Fact was," the man from Iowa explained somberly, "I didn"t exactly like it down there any more. You see, it was this way. They got to telling things about me. Why, they even said I was a liar and hoss thief, and no better than I ought to be. And, by Jemima, I jest pulled out and went right away from them scandalous folks."
"Well, I swan!" the visitor exclaimed indignantly. "You can bet I wouldn"t leave a place for any reason like that. I"d make them prove what they said."
The homesteader sighed dismally as he answered:
"That"s jest the trouble--they did prove it!"
THREAT
The mother, who was a believer in strict discipline, sternly addressed her little daughter, who sat wofully shrinking in the dentist"s chair as the ogre approached forceps in hand:
"Now, Letty, if you cry, I"ll never take you to the dentist"s again."
THRIFT
A Scotchman was questioned by a friend:
"Mac, I hear ye have fallen in love wi" bonny Kate McAllister."
"Weel, Sanders," Mac replied, "I was near--veera near--doin" it, but the bit la.s.sy had nae siller, so I said to meaself, "Mac, be a mon." And I was a mon, and noo I jist pa.s.s her by."
The thrifty housewife regarded her dying husband with stern disapproval as he moaned and tossed restlessly from side to side.
"William Henry," she rebuked him, "you jest needn"t kick and squirm so, and wear them best sheets all out, even if you be a-dyin"."
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