The President came into the telegraph-office of the White House,
laughing. He had picked up a child's book in his son "Tad's" room and
looked at it. It was a story of a motherly hen, struggling to raise her
brood to lead honest and useful lives; but in her efforts she was
greatly annoyed by a mischievous fox. She had given him many lectures
on his wicked ways, and--said the President: "I thought I would turn
over to the finis, and see how they came out. This is what it said:
"'And the fox became a good fox, and was appointed paymaster in the
army.' I think it very funny that I should have appointed him a
paymaster. I wonder who he is?"
Such inability to distinguish one officer as "good" does not speak
highly for the eradication of the soldiers' prejudice for the
gentry.--(Superintendent Tinker.)
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