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Everybody's Book

of

English Wit and Humour.

A Sense of Loneliness.

"All the world," said an old Quaker to his wife, "is queer, except thee and me—and thee is a little queer."

Seeking Information, and—Finding It.

Coleridge was acknowledged to be a bad rider. One day, riding through a street, he was accosted by a would-be wit: "I say, do you know what happened to Baalam?"

Came the answer sharp and quick: "The same as happened to me. An ass spoke to him!"

Related — By Marriage.

As my wife and I, at the window one day,
Stood watching a man with a monkey,
A cart came by, with a "broth of a boy,"
Who was driving a stout little donkey.
To my wife I then spoke, by way of a joke,
"There's a relation of yours in that carriage;"
To which she replied, as the donkey she spied,
"Ah yes, a relation—By Marriage!"

Temperance (and Intemperance) in Three Words.

Theodore Hook, when dining with the author of a work called "Three Words to the Drunkard," was asked to review it. "Oh, my dear fellow, that I have already done in three words—pass the bottle."

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