GOLF
The eminent English Statesman Arbuthnot-Joyce plays golf so badly that he
prefers a solitary round with only the caddy present. He had a new boy one
day recently, and played as wretchedly as usual.
"I fancy I
play the worst game in the world," he confessed to the caddy.
"Oh, I
wouldn't say that, sir," was the consoling response. "From what
the boys were saying about another gentleman who plays here, he must be worse
even than you are."
"What's his
name?" asked the statesman hopefully.
And the caddy
replied:
"Arbuthnot-Joyce."
GRACE
The son and heir
had just been confirmed. At the dinner table, following the church
service, the father called on his son to say grace. The boy was greatly
embarrassed by the demand. Moreover, he was tired, not only from the
excitement of the special service through which he had passed, but also from
walking to and from the church, four miles away, and too, he was very hungry
indeed and impatient to begin the meal. Despite his protest, however, the
father insisted.
So, at last, the
little man folded his hands with a pious air, closed his eyes tight, bent his
head reverently, and spoke his prayer:
"Oh Lord,
have mercy on these victuals. Amen!"
*
* *
The new clergyman
in the country parish, during his visit to an old lady of his flock, inquired if
she accepted the doctrine of Falling from Grace. The good woman nodded
vigorously.
"Yes,
sir," she declared with pious zeal, "I believe in it, and, praise the
Lord! I practise it!"
GRAMMAR
The passing lady
mistakenly supposed that the woman shouting from a window down the street was calling
to the little girl minding baby brother close by on the curb.
"Your mother
is calling you," she said kindly.
The little girl
corrected the lady:
"Her ain't
a-callin' we. Us don't belong to she."
*
* *
The teacher asked
the little girl if she was going to the Maypole dance. "No, I ain't
going," was the reply.
The teacher
corrected the child:
"You must
not say, 'I ain't going,' you must say, 'I am not going.' " And she
added to impress the point: "I am not going. He is not
going. We are not going. You are not going. They are not
going. Now, dear, can you say all that?"
The little girl
nodded and smiled brightly.
"Sure!"
she replied. "They ain't nobody going."
*
* *
The witness, in
answer to the lawyer's question, said:
"Them
hain't the boots what was stole."
The judge rebuked
the witness sternly:
"Speak
grammatic, young man -- speak grammatic! You shouldn't ought to say, 'them
boots what was stole,' you should ought to say, 'them boots as was stealed.'
"
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