asparagus!

[7] Forks did not come into use till the time of Charles V. in
the latter half of the fourteenth century. In France, these
instruments, both in silver and tinned iron, are made so as to
bear some resemblance to the fingers, of which they are the
substitutes, and they are used exclusively in the business of
conveying food to the mouth; while the knives, being narrow and
sharp-pointed, can answer no purpose but that of carving.--In
England the case is different. The steel forks, in common use
among the people, are incapable of raising thin viands to the
mouth: while the broad, round-pointed knife was obviously
intended for this business.

[8] The vin d'Ai, in Champagne, according to Patin, was called "Vinum
Dei," by Dominicus Bandius. It was the common drink of kings and
princes.--Paumier, Traite du Vin.

[9] Mabillon, Annales Benedictines.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.
SHAKSPEARE.

A clergyman of the name of Mathson was minister of Patteesdale, in
Westmoreland, sixty years, and died at the age of ninety. During the
early part of his life, his benefice brought him in only twelve pounds
a-year; it was afterwards increased (perhaps by Queen Anne's bounty) to
eighteen, which it never exceeded. On this income he married, brought
up four children, and lived comfortably with his neighbours, educated
a son at the university, and left behind him upwards of one thousand
pounds. With that singular simplicity and inattention to forms which
characterize a country life, thus he himself read the burial service
over his mother, he married his father to a second wife, and afterwards
buried him also. He published his own banns of marriage in the church,
with a woman he had formerly christened, and he himself married all his
four children.

W.G.C.

* * * * *

THE POPE PUZZLED.

Pope Alexander the sixth asked the Venetian ambassador at Rome, "What
right his republic had to the dominion of the Adriatic See?" "It will be
found," replied he, "on the back of the donation of the patrimony of St.
Peter to his successors."

W.A.R.

* * * * *

CHANGING SIDES.

"I am come from Naples to support you," said one of the old opposition
one night to a member on the minister