"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