by
the publishers, postage prepaid, on receipt of the price._

[Illustration: A SWIMMING LESSON.]

WISE CHILD.

"Papa, I know why Napoleon needed to sleep only four hours every night."

"Why, my son?"

"Because he took a _Nap_ everywhere he went."

A district school teacher in New Hampshire has had great difficulty in
explaining adverbs to a class of children. After toiling faithfully with
them, he said: "Bring in a list of adverbs to-morrow. Remember that a
great many adverbs ends in ly."

The next day one boy's list began: Slowly, fastly, lily, emily!

Mamma labelled her jars of sweets,
"Put up by Mrs. Kay";
Later it read upon those meats,
"Put down by Tommy Jay."

A PUZZLER.

MRS. TEECHUM. "That small engine pounding away in the corner, Toby, is
called a donkey-engine."

TOBY. "And yet the engineer says it works with a four-horse-power.
That's funny, isn't it?"

AT THE ZOO.

BERTIE. "You say that is the bird of freedom, mamma?"

MAMMA. "Yes, Bertie."

BERTIE. "Then why is it in a cage?"

"Mamma, where do eggs come from?"

"Chickens, my dear."

"Well, that's funny. Papa says that chickens come from eggs."

Charles Mathews, the celebrated English comedian, was probably one of
the best mimics the world ever produced. Born June 28, 1776, after a
successful career he died on the same date, 1835, fifty-nine years
later.

One of his favorite amusements was that of mimicking children. One day
in Suffolk, England, he walked up to a group of boys all about eight
years of age, who were playing marbles, and adopting their actions and
tone of voice, he asked permission to join in the game. They were, of
course, rather startled at this big lad, and stared at him in silence.
However, everything he did was so like themselves that a little fellow
in the party cried out, "I say, fellows, what's the harm; let him play;"
and then turning to Mathews asked him, "Have you got any marbles?"

"No," said Mathews, "but I've got a penny."

"Well, then, you can buy some of ours," which he did, and then knuckled
down and proceeded to play.

The boys by this time had ceased to regard him as other than one of
themselves, never entertaining the slightest suspicion that it was the
celebrated comedian they had among them.

In a short time he squabbled with the boys, and the talk was something
like the following:

"You, Bill Atkins! I say you've no rig