The girl who first received him made an insistent demand:
"You"ll think of me every single minute when you"re in those stupid old trenches!"
"Every minute," he agreed solemnly.
"And you"ll kiss my picture every night."
"Twice a night," he vowed, with the girl"s pretty head on the shoulder of the new uniform coat.
"And you"ll write me long, long letters?" she pleaded.
"I"ll write every spare minute," he a.s.sured her, "and if I haven"t any spare minutes, I"ll take "em anyhow."
After a tender interval punctuated with similar ardent promises, he went away from there, and called on another girl. In fact, he called on ten separate and distinct pretty girls, and each of them was tender and sought his promises, which he gave freely and ardently and when it was all done with, he communed with himself somewhat sadly.
"I do hope," he said wearily, "there won"t be much fighting to do over there--for I"m going to be awfully busy."
WEATHER
The old colored attendant at the court house had a formula for addressing the judge:
"What"s the news this mawnin", Jedge?"
And the judge"s habitual reply was to the effect that there was no news in particular.
But one morning, in answer to the usual query, there came a variation:
"Our country has declared war against Spain." The darky scratched his head thoughtfully, then rolled his eyes to squint at the cloudless blue of the sky, and finally remarked in a pleased tone:
"They shohly done picked a fine day fer it."
WHALES
At the time when petroleum began to be used instead of whale oil for burning in lamps, a kindly old lady was deeply perturbed by the change.
"What," she wanted to know, "will the poor whales do now?"
WHISKERS
An elderly man was on his way home by train from a session of three days at a convention of his political party. (This was antedating the era of prohibition.) The man"s personal preferences had been gratified in the nominations at the convention, and he had celebrated in a way only too common in the bibulous period of our history. His absorption in other things and of other things had led him to neglect shaving throughout the three days. Now, as he chanced to move his hand over his chin, it encountered the long growth of white bristles, and he was aroused to a realization of his neglect. To determine just how badly he needed a shave, the elderly gentleman opened his handbag, and fumbled in it for a mirror. In his confused condition, he seized on a silver-backed hair-brush of the same set, pulled it forth, and held it up to his face with the bristles toward him. He studied these with great care, groaned and muttered:
"I look worse than I thought for. Whatever will Sarah Ann say!"
WIDOW
One of the ladies a.s.sembled at the club was describing the wedding she had just attended:
"And then, just as Frank and the widow started up the aisle to the altar, every light in the church went out."
The listeners exclaimed over the catastrophe.
"And what did the couple do then?" someone questioned.
"Kept on going. The widow knew the way."
A widow visited a spiritualistic medium, who satisfactorily produced the deceased husband for a domestic chat.
"Dear John," the widow questioned eagerly, "are you happy now?"
"I am very happy," the spook a.s.sured her.
"Happier than you were on earth with me?" the widow continued, greatly impressed.
"Yes," John a.s.serted, "I am far happier now than I was on earth with you."
"Oh, do tell me, John," the widow cried rapturously, "what is it like in heaven?"
"Heaven!" the answer snapped. "I ain"t in heaven!"
WIDOWHOOD
During the parade at the last encampment of the G.A.R., a woman in the crowd of spectators made herself not only conspicuous, but rather a nuisance by the way she carried on. She waved a flag with such vigor as to endanger the bystanders and yelled to deafen them. An annoyed man in the crowd after politely requesting her to moderate her enthusiasm, quite without effect, bluntly told her to shut up.
"Shut up yourself!" she retorted in high indignation. "If you had buried two husbands who had served in the war, you would be hurrahing, too."
WIFE
A young skeptic in the congregation once interrupted Billy Sunday with the question:
"Who was Cain"s wife?"
The Evangelist answered in all seriousness:
"I honor every seeker after knowledge of the truth. But I have a word of warning for this questioner. Don"t risk losing salvation by too much inquiring after other men"s wives."
WILD WOMEN
The old sea captain was surrounded at the tea party, to which his wife had dragged him, much against his will, by a group of women pestering him for a story from his adventures. Finally, at the end of his patience, he began.
"Once, I was shipwrecked on the coast of South America, and there I came across a tribe of wild women, who had no tongues."