poor joke too.

Let us just take stock of Timothy for a minute or two, to explain what
we mean.

He's in class, and the lesson is history. He does not look happy, but
of course that can't be because he doesn't know the lesson. Timothy not
know a lesson indeed!

"Timothy," says the master, "tell me in whose reign the Reformation was
introduced into England, will you?"

"James the First," replies Timothy.

"Next boy?"

"Henry the Eighth."

"Right; go up."

"Oh, sir," says Timothy, "that's what I meant; _I mistook the name_ for
a moment!" And he goes down with the air of an injured and resigned
boy.

In the geography class which follows Tim has another opportunity of
displaying his learning.

"On what river does Berlin stand?" is the question.

Tim hums and haws. "On the--oh--the--the, on the--er--the--"

"Next boy?"

"Berlin is on the Spree, sir."

"Ah, of course! It slipped me," mutters Tim with a thoughtful frown.
"Any one knows Berlin is on the Spree!" And down he goes again, as if
it were the common lot of all clever boys.

Arithmetic ensues. "Tell me, Timothy, if a man earns four shillings and
sixpence halfpenny a day, how much does he make in a week of six days?"

This enormous problem Tim takes due time to cogitate. Of course he
could tell you straight off if he chose; but as it is the practice to
work out sums in the head, he condescends to the common prejudice. At
length the oracle speaks.

"One pound three and two pence halfpenny."

"Quite wrong; what do you make it, Edward?"

"One pound four."

"Wrong. Next?"

"One pound seven and threepence."

"That's right."

"Oh yes, to be sure!" exclaims Tim, with the gesture of one who clutches
at the very words of his own lips uttered by another; "of course,
_that's what I meant_!"

"Timothy," says the master, gravely, "if you meant it, why did you not
say it?"

Why not, indeed? That is one of the very few questions, reader, in all
this world's philosophy which Timothy is unable to answer.

Of course every one laughs at Timothy, but that does not afflict him.
So fortified is he in the assurance of his own infallibility, that the
scorn of the ignorant is to him but as the rippling of water at the base
of a lighthouse.

Do not mistake me, Tim is not a dunce. For every question he answers
wrongly, perhaps he answers half a dozen correctly. If he chose to take
his stand on his general proficiency, he would pass for a fairly