only love,' You
see, with that inscription you can use the ring half a dozen times. I
have had experience in such matters myself."

SURPRISING

Pat came to the dentist's with his jaw very much swollen from a tooth he
desired to have pulled. But when the suffering son of Erin got into the
dentist's chair and saw the gleaming pair of forceps approaching his
face, he positively refused to open his mouth. The dentist quietly told
his page boy to prick his patient with a pin, and when Pat opened his
mouth to yell the dentist seized the tooth, and out it came. "It didn't
hurt as much as you expected it would, did it?" the dentist asked,
smilingly.

"Well, no," replied Pat, hesitatingly, as if doubting the truthfulness
of his admission. "But," he added, placing his hand on the spot where
the little boy pricked him with the pin, "begorra, little did I think
the roots would reach down like that."

TRUE OPTIMIST

Among the passengers on a train on a one-track road in the Middle West
was a talkative jewelry drummer. Presently the train stopped to take on
water, and the conductor neglected to send back a flagman. An express
came along and, before it could be stopped, bumped the rear end of the
first train. The drummer was lifted from his seat and pitched head first
into the seat ahead. His silk hat was jammed clear down over his ears.
He picked himself up and settled back in his seat. No bones had been
broken. He drew a long breath, straightened up, and said: "Well, they
didn't get by us, anyway."

INDISSOLUBLE PARTNERS

Memory and Imagination had a discussion as to which was the greater.
"Without me," said Memory, "your buildings, your fine castles, would all
go down. I alone give you power to retain them."

"Without me," said Imagination, "there would be no use of retaining
them, for, indeed, they wouldn't be there. I am the great builder."

"And I the great recorder."

"It appears, then, that no one of us is greater than the other. Yet I
would not change places with you."

"Why not?" said Memory.

"Because," replied Imagination, "without you I can still keep on
creating over and over."

At the end of a year Memory came back.

"What have you done?" asked Memory.

"Nothing," said Imagination.

"And you were wrong when you said that without me you could still go on
creating."

"Yes. I did not realize how dependent I was upon you. What have you been
doing during the year?"

"Reviewing some old friend