The steamer was on the point of leaving, and the pa.s.sengers lounged on the deck and waited for the start. At length one of them espied a cyclist in the far distance, and it soon became evident that he was doing his level best to catch the boat.
Already the sailors" hands were on the gangways, and the cyclist"s chance looked small indeed. Then a sportive pa.s.senger wagered a sovereign to a shilling that he would miss it. The offer was taken, and at once the deck became a scene of wild excitement.
"He"ll miss it."
"No; he"ll just do it."
"Come on!"
"He won"t do it."
"Yes, he will. He"s done it. Hurrah!"
In the very nick of time the cyclist arrived, sprang off his machine, and ran up the one gangway left.
"Cast off!" he cried.
It was the captain.
Much to the curious little girl"s disgust, her elder sister and her girl friends had quickly closed the door of the back parlor, before she could wedge her small self in among them.
She waited uneasily for a little while, then she knocked. No response.
She knocked again. Still no attention. Her curiosity could be controlled no longer. "Dodo!" she called in staccato tones as she knocked once again. ""Tain"t me! It"s Mamma!"
MOLLYCODDLES
"Tommy, why don"t you play with Frank any more?" asked Tommy"s mother, who noticed that he was cultivating the acquaintance of a new boy on the block. "I thought you were such good chums."
"We was," replied Tommy superciliously, "but he"s a mollycoddle. He paid t" git into the ball-grounds."
MONEY
In some of the college settlements there are penny savings banks for children.
One Sat.u.r.day a small boy arrived with an important air and withdrew 2 cents from his account. Monday morning he promptly returned the money.
"So you didn"t spend your 2 cents?" observed the worker in charge.
"Oh, no," he replied, "but a fellow just likes to have a little cash on hand over Sunday."
_See also_ Domestic finance.
MORAL EDUCATION
Two little boys, four and five years old respectively, were playing quietly, when the one of four years struck the other on his cheek. An interested bystander stepped up and asked him why he had hit the other who had done nothing.
"Well," replied the pugilistic one, "last Sunday our lesson in Sunday-school was about if a fellow hit you on the left cheek turn the other and get another crack, and I just wanted to see if Bobbie knew his lesson."
MOSQUITOES
Senator Gore, of Oklahoma, while addressing a convention in Oklahoma City recently, told this story, ill.u.s.trating a point he made:
"A northern gentleman was being entertained by a southern colonel on a fishing-trip. It was his first visit to the South, and the mosquitoes were so bothersome that he was unable to sleep, while at the same time he could hear his friend snoring audibly.
"The next morning he approached the old darky who was doing the cooking.
""Jim," he said, "how is it the colonel is able to sleep so soundly with so many mosquitoes around?"
""I"ll tell yo", boss," the darky replied, "de fust part of de night de kernel is too full to pay any "tenshum to de skeeters, and de last part of de night de skeeters is too full to pay any "tenshum to de kernel.""
_See also_ Applause; New Jersey.
MOTHERS
While reconnoitering in Westmoreland County, Virginia, one of General Washington"s officers chanced upon a fine team of horses driven before a plow by a burly slave. Finer animals he had never seen. When his eyes had feasted on their beauty he cried to the driver: "h.e.l.lo good fellow!
I must have those horses. They are just such animals as I have been looking for."
The black man grinned, rolled up the whites of his eyes, put the lash to the horses" flanks and turned up another furrow in the rich soil.
The officer waited until he had finished the row; then throwing back his cavalier cloak the ensign of the rank dazzled the slave"s eyes.
"Better see missus! Better see missus!" he cried waving his hand to the south, where above the cedar growth rose the towers of a fine old Virginia mansion.
The officer turned up the carriage road and soon was rapping the great bra.s.s knocker of the front door.