"He thinks he will attend regular in future."

MRS. POST--"But why adopt a baby when you have three children of your
own under five years old?"

MRS. PARKER--"My own are being brought up properly. The adopted one is
to enjoy."

The neighbors of a certain woman in a New England town maintain that
this lady entertains some very peculiar notions touching the training of
children. Local opinion ascribes these oddities on her part to the fact
that she attended normal school for one year just before her marriage.

Said one neighbor: "She does a lot of funny things. What do you suppose
I heard her say to that boy of hers this afternoon?"

"I dunno. What was it?"

"Well, you know her husband cut his finger badly yesterday with a
hay-cutter; and this afternoon as I was goin' by the house I heard her
say:

"'Now, William, you must be a very good boy, for your father has injured
his hand, and if you are naughty he won't be able to whip you.'"--_Edwin
Tarrisse_.

Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of
outlived sorrow.--_George Eliot_.

Better to be driven out from among men than to be disliked of
children.--_R.H. Dana_.

_See also_ Boys; Families.

CHOICES

William Phillips, our secretary of embassy at London, tells of an
American officer who, by the kind permission of the British Government,
was once enabled to make a week's cruise on one of His Majesty's
battleships. Among other things that impressed the American was the
vessel's Sunday morning service. It was very well attended, every sailor
not on duty being there. At the conclusion of the service the American
chanced to ask one of the jackies:

"Are you obliged to attend these Sunday morning services?"

"Not exactly obliged to, sir," replied the sailor-man, "but our grog
would be stopped if we didn't, sir."--_Edwin Tarrisse_.

A well-known furniture dealer of a Virginia town wanted to give his
faithful negro driver something for Christmas in recognition of his
unfailing good humor in toting out stoves, beds, pianos, etc.

"Dobson," he said, "you have helped me through some pretty tight places
in the last ten years, and I want to give you something as a Christmas
present that will be useful to you and that you will enjoy. Which do you
prefer, a ton of coal or a gallon of good whiskey?"

"Boss," Dobson replied, "Ah burns wood."

A man hurried into a quick-lunch restaurant recently and called to