quite a
distance from any other house.

The preacher, an old-line Baptist, was dressed in coarse linen
pantaloons, and shirt of the same material. The pants, manufactured
after the old fashion, with baggy legs, and a flap in the front, were
made to attach to his frame without the aid of suspenders.

A single button held his shirt in position, and that was at the collar.
He rose up in the pulpit, and with a loud voice announced his text thus:
"I am the Christ whom I shall represent to-day."

About this time a little blue lizard ran up his roomy pantaloons. The
old preacher, not wishing to interrupt the steady flow of his sermon,
slapped away on his leg, expecting to arrest the intruder, but his
efforts were unavailing, and the little fellow kept on ascending higher
and higher.

Continuing the sermon, the preacher loosened the central button which
graced the waistband of his pantaloons, and with a kick off came that
easy-fitting garment.

But, meanwhile, Mr. Lizard had passed the equatorial line of the
waistband, and was calmly exploring that part of the preacher's anatomy
which lay underneath the back of his shirt.

Things were now growing interesting, but the sermon was still grinding
on. The next movement on the preacher's part was for the collar button,
and with one sweep of his arm off came the tow linen shirt.

The congregation sat for an instant as if dazed; at length one old
lady in the rear part of the room rose up, and, glancing at the excited
object in the pulpit, shouted at the top of her voice: "If you represent
Christ, then I'm done with the Bible."

HIS KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE.

Once, when Lincoln was pleading a case, the opposing lawyer had all the
advantage of the law; the weather was warm, and his opponent, as was
admissible in frontier courts, pulled off his coat and vest as he grew
warm in the argument.

At that time, shirts with buttons behind were unusual. Lincoln took in
the situation at once. Knowing the prejudices of the primitive people
against pretension of all sorts, or any affectation of superior social
rank, arising, he said: "Gentlemen of the jury, having justice on my
side, I don't think you will be at all influenced by the gentleman's
pretended knowledge of the law, when you see he does not even know which
side of his shirt should be in front." There was a general laugh, and
Lincoln's case was won.

A MISCHIEVOUS OX.

President Lincoln once told the following