to wear stockings
with holes to having them darned: "A hole," said he, "may be the
accident of a day, and will pass upon the best gentleman, but a darn
is premeditated poverty."

PRAISE

The highest praise for a man is to give him responsibility.

A playwright and an actor were in conversation when the former, who
has been none too successful of late, exclaimed gloomily:

"People will praise my work after I am dead."

"Well," said the actor, in a consoling tone, "perhaps you are right,
but don't you think it's a great deal of a sacrifice to make for a
little praise?"

"Well, there's one thing about the man who sings his own praises."

"And what's that?"

"He never has to give the excuse that he has left his music home and
can't play without his notes."

The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,
Reigns, more or less, and glows, in ev'ry heart:
The proud, to gain it, toils on toils endure;
The modest shun it, but to make it sure.

--_Young_.

Praising what is lost,
Makes the remembrance dear.

--_Shakespeare_.

PRAYERS

A very nice and gentle minister accepted a call to a new church in a
town where many of the members bred horses and sometimes raced them. A
few weeks later he was asked to invite the prayers of the congregation
for Lucy Grey. Willingly and gladly he did so for three Sundays. On
the fourth one of the deacons told the minister he need not do it any
more.

"Why," asked the good man, with an anxious look, "is she dead?"

"Oh, no," said the deacon; "she's won the steeplechase."

The two men were adrift in an open boat and it looked bad for them.
Finally one of them, frightened, began to pray.

"O Lord," he prayed, "I've broken most of Thy commandments. I've been
a hard drinker, but if my life is spared now I'll promise Thee never
again--"

"Wait a minute, Jack," said, his friend. "Don't go too far. I think I
see a sail."

Lindsley had the little hen fast and was trying to bring her head
close to the ground.

"What might you be trying to do?" exclaimed her father coming upon the
small girl in the yard.

"I'm trying to make this hen say her prayers."

"Well," said the parent sadly, "I hope she'll say: 'Now I lay me.'"

BROWN (on fishing trip)--"Boys, the boat is sinking! Is there any one
here who knows how to pray?"

JONES (eagerly)--"I do."

BROWN--"All right. You pray and the rest of us will put on life belts.
They's one sh