d me that H was no letter, and therefore
this is good rhyme." His tutor said, "Take heed, Charles, of that
evasion, for that will make you an _owl_."

MCXXI.--NOSCE TE IPSUM.

SHERIDAN was one day much annoyed by a fellow-member of the House of
Commons, who kept crying out every few minutes, "Hear! hear!" During the
debate he took occasion to describe a political contemporary that wished
to play rogue, but had only sense enough to act fool. "Where," exclaimed
he, with great emphasis--"where shall we find a more foolish knave or a
more _knavish fool_ than he?"--"Hear! hear!" was shouted by the
troublesome member. Sheridan turned round, and, thanking him for the
prompt information, sat down amid a general roar of laughter.

MCXXII.--VERA CANNIE.

A YOUNG lady, pressed by friends to marry a decent, but poor man, on the
plea, "_Marry_ for love, and _work_ for siller," replied, "It's a' vera
true, but a kiss and a tinniefu[C] o' cauld water maks a gey wersh[D]
breakfast."

[C] Tinnie, the small porringer of children.

[D] Insipid.

MCXXIII.--TIMELY AID.

A LADY was followed by a beggar, who very importunately asked her for
alms. She refused him; when he quitted her, saying, with a profound
sigh, "Yet the alms I asked you for would have prevented me executing my
present resolution!" The lady was alarmed lest the man should commit
some rash attempt on his own life. She called him back, and gave him a
shilling, and asked him the meaning of what he had just said. "Madam,"
said the fellow, laying hold of the money, "I have been _begging_ all
day in vain, and but for this shilling I should have been obliged to
_work_!"

MCXXIV.--WHIST.

MRS. BRAY relates the following of a Devonshire physician, happily named
Vial, who was a desperate lover of whist. One evening in the midst of a
deal, the doctor fell off his chair in a fit. Consternation seized on
the company. Was he alive or dead? At length he showed signs of life,
and, retaining the last fond idea which had possessed him at the moment
he fell into the fit, exclaimed, "_What is trumps_?"

MCXXV.--HENRY ERSKINE.

THE late Hon. Henry Erskine met his acquaintance Jemmy Ba--four, a
barrister, who dealt in hard words and circumlocutious sentences.
Perceiving that his ankle was tied up with a silk handkerchief, the
former asked the cause. "Why, my dear sir," answered the wordy lawyer,
"I was taking a romantic ramble in m