while pungent, is always kindly.... There is always that trembling
in the laugh that betokens the presence of a tear ready to fall.
Will Carleton is always a poet, whether he writes in verse or
not.--_N. Y. Commercial Advertiser._
SHAKESPEARE THE BOY
With Sketches of the Home and School Life, the Games and Sports, the
Manners, Customs, and Folk-Lore of the Time. By WILLIAM J. ROLFE,
Litt.D., Editor of "Rolfe's English Classics," etc. Illustrated. Post
8vo, Cloth, $1.25.
Clearly, forcibly, yet simply, has Prof. Rolfe presented the story
of a boy's life, a great boy, a boy of high aspirations, for the
literary pleasure of the student and the scholar, as well as for
the captivation and delight of the undergraduate and the children,
with whom in all ages is Shakespeare a favorite.--_Boston Courier._
* * * * *
HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers, New York
[Illustration: THE LITTLE RABBIT'S MISTAKE.]
"HELLO, SOME RABBIT'S LOST ITS TAIL! TOO BAD, I DO DECLARE!"
(HE SAW A FLUFFY THISTLE-DOWN AFLOAT UP IN THE AIR.)
* * * * *
THAT SETTLES IT.
TEDDY. "I tell you it's so."
NELLIE. "I say it is not."
TEDDY. "Well, mamma says it's so; and if mamma says it's so, it's so
even if it isn't so!"
* * * * *
PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL.
The following anecdote was new many years ago, but will bear repeating.
A certain Spanish knight, very poor but proud, and rightly so, as his
birth was as high as a King's, arrived late one very dark night at an
inn in France. Riding up to the entrance on his forlorn nag, he fell to
battering the gate. He finally awakened the landlord, who, peering out
into the night, called,
"Who is there?"
"Don Juan Pedro Hernandez Rodriguez de Vellanova, Count of Malofra,
Knight Santiago and Alcantara," replied the Spaniard.
"I am very sorry," shouted the landlord, "but I haven't room enough for
all those gentlemen you mention." And he slammed the window and retired.
* * * * *
WELL TO REMEMBER.
What is good for one is not always good for another. This is illustrated
in a short tale told some time ago about a French medical student. While
in London on a visit the student lodged in the house with a man very
sick with a fever, who was continually besieged by his nurse to drink
very nauseating liquids which were lukewarm. The sick man found this
almost impossible to do, until one day he whispered to his nurse,
"Bring me a salt herring and I will drink as much as you please."
The woman indulged him in his request; he ate the herring, drank the
liquids, underwent the required perspiration, and recovered.
The French student, thinking this very clever, inserted in his journal,
"Salt herring cures an Englishman of fever."
On his return to France he prescribed the same remedy to his first
patient with a fever. The patient died. On which he inserted in his
journal: "N.B.--A salt herring cures an Englishman, but kills a
Frenchman."
* * * * *
A LONG CHASE.
It was noticed, at one of the boys' clubs over on the East Side, that a
little negro who attended regularly always sought a certain book each
evening, and laughed uproariously apparently at the same picture. One of
the supervisors approached and saw that the picture represented a bull
chasing a small colored boy across a field. He asked the little fellow
what amused him so.
"Gosh!" answered the boy, "he 'ain't kotched him yet!"
* * * * *
A new pair of shoes came home for Davy, aged five. He was delighted with
them until they had been put on his feet. Then he exclaimed, with a
pout, "Oh, my! they're so tight I can't wink my toes!"
* * * * *
One of King George's ministers was once asked why he did not promote
merit. "Because," replied the minister, "merit did not promote me!"
* * * * *
David Garrick, the celebrated actor, was once urged to become a
candidate for Parliament. "No, I thank you," replied Garrick. "I would
rather play the part of a great man on the stage than the part of a fool
in Parliament."
* * * * *
Just before the sea fight between the fleets of Admiral Duncan and
Admiral de Winter, the former called his men together, and said,
"Lads, there is a hard winter coming on; see that you keep up a good
fire!"
* * * * *
"Now, boys," said the new school-teacher, "I want you to be so quiet
that we can hear a pin drop."
There was a cavernous silence for a second, then a voice in the rear
muttered, "Now, then, let her drop!"
* * * * *
[Illustration: PURE FOLLY.]
MRS. DACHSHUND. "MY SON, HOW OFTEN MUST I TELL YOU NOT TO GET INTO AN
ARGUMENT WITH THAT GOAT?"
SON. "WHY?"
MRS. DACHSHUND. "BECAUSE HE'S ENTIRELY TOO HEADSTRONG."
End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, October 13, 1896, by Various