ssing, and it will do me good to be seen
in conversation with your majesty."

Vivier was a confirmed practical joker. Once, while riding in an omnibus,
he pretended to be mad.

He indulged in the wildest gesticulations, and then, as if in despair,
drew a pistol from his pocket. The conductor was called upon by
acclamation to interfere, and Vivier was on the point of being disarmed
when suddenly he broke the pistol in two, handed half to the conductor and
began to eat the other half himself. It was made of chocolate!

Vivier could not bear to see people in a hurry. According to him, there
was nothing in life worth hurrying for; and, living on the Boulevard, just
opposite the Rue Vivienne, he was much annoyed at seeing so many persons
hastening, toward six o'clock, to the post-office on the Place de la
Bourse.

He determined to pay them out, and for that purpose bought a calf, which
he took up to his apartments at night, and exhibited the next afternoon at
a few minutes before six o'clock on the balcony of his second floor. In
spite of their eagerness to catch the post, many persons could not help
stopping to look at the calf.

Soon a crowd collected and messengers stayed their steps in order to gaze
at the unwonted apparition. Six o'clock struck, and soon after a number of
men who had missed the post returned in an irritated condition, and,
stopping before Vivier's house, shook their fists at him. Vivier went down
to them and asked the meaning of the insolence.

"We were not shaking our fists at you," replied the enraged ones, "but at
that calf."

"Ah! You know him, then?" returned Vivier. "I was not aware of it."

In time Vivier's calf became the subject of a legend, according to which
the animal (still in Vivier's apartments) grew to be an ox, and so annoyed
the neighbors by his lowing that the proprietor of the house insisted on
its being sent away. Vivier told him to come and take it, when it was
found that the calf of other days had grown to such a size that it was
impossible to get it down-stairs.

ARTERIES AND VEINS AS A RACE-COURSE.

MILEAGE OF THE HUMAN BLOOD.

One Little Red Corpuscle May Travel One
Hundred and Sixty-Eight Miles
in a Single Day.

The speed at which the blood circulates in the veins and arteries of a
healthy man is something surprising. All day long, year in and year out,
the round trips continue from the heart to the extremities and back again.
The red blood corpuscles t