"Oh, she broke it?"
"No, she didn't break it."
"But it is broken?"
"Yes. She told me what her raiment cost, and I told her what my income was. Then our engagement sagged in the middle and gently dissolved."
COUNTRY LIFE
UNCLE EZRA--"So ye just got back from New York! What's the difference between the city and the country?"
UNCLE EBEN--"Wal, in the country you go to bed feeling all in and get up feeling fine, and in the city you go to bed feeling fine and get up feeling all in."--_Life_.
Little Mary was visiting her grandmother in the country. Walking in the garden, she chanced to see a peacock, a bird she had never seen before. After gazing in silent admiration, she ran quickly into the house and cried out: "Oh, granny, come and see! One of your chickens is in bloom."
A man living in the heart of London has recently bought a cow, which he keeps in his back-yard. Thirty milkmen have already been noticed looking over the wall to see what a cow looks like.
Little Betty had been greatly interested in watching the men in her grandfather's orchard putting bands round the fruit trees and asked many questions.
Some weeks later, when in the city with her mother, she noticed a gentleman with a mourning band round his left sleeve.
"Mamma," she asked, "what's to keep them from crawling up his other arm?"
A minister, spending a holiday in the North of Ireland, was out walking, and, feeling very thirsty, called at a farmhouse for a drink of milk. The farmer's wife gave him a large bowl of milk, and while he was quenching his thirst a number of pigs got round about him. The minister noticed that the pigs were very strange in their manner, so he said:
"My good lady, why are the pigs so excited?"
The farmer's wife replied, "Sure, it's no wonder they are excited, sir; it's their own little bowl you are drinking out of!"
An enterprising salesman was trying to persuade a farmer to buy a bicycle. The farmer was in town for the day, and had determined to see everything.
"I'd rather spend my money on a cow," said he proudly.
"But think," said the salesman, "what a fool you'd look riding about on a cow."
"Not half such a fool as I'd look trying to milk a bicycle," answered the farmer.
"Hiram," said the farmer's wife, "what makes you say 'By gosh!' so much and go round with a straw in your mouth?"
"I'm getting ready for them summer boarders that's comin' next week.
If some of us don't talk an' act that way, they'll think we ain't country folks at all."
COURAGE
The swain and his swainess had just encountered a bulldog that looked as if he might shake a mean lower jaw.
"Why, Percy," she exclaimed as he started a strategic retreat. "You always swore you would face death for me."
"I would," he flung back over his shoulder, "but that darn dog ain't dead."
"Who led the army in that recent expedition?"
"I did," replied General Tamale.
"I thought the attack was led by General Concarne."
"It was I who prevented great loss of life. He led them going forward, but I led them coming back."
A man of courage is also full of faith.--_Cicero_.
Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it and conquering it.--_Richter_.
Few persons have courage enough to appear as good as they really are.--_Hare_.
Conscience in the soul is the root of all true courage. If a man would be brave, let him learn to obey his conscience.--_Clarke_.
COURTESY
"How do you like your new music-master?"
"He is a very nice, polite young man. When I made a mistake yesterday he said: 'Pray, mademoiselle, why do you take so much pains to improve upon Beethoven?'"
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.--_Emerson_.