loor. He appears to be about a year and a half
old. Incidentally, he is a very plain baby. Strewn about him on the
floor are the toys that he has been playing with. There are a ball, a
rattle, a ring, a doll, a bell and a pair of roller-skates. Evidently,
the candidate is supposed to be aghast at the roller-skates in the
possession of such a small child.

The man who drew that picture had evidently never furnished playthings
for a small child. I can imagine nothing that would delight a child of a
year and a half more than a pair of roller-skates to chew and spin and
hit himself in the face with. They could also be dropped on Daddy when
Daddy was lying on the floor in an attempt to be sociable. Of all the
toys arranged before the child, the roller-skates are the most logical.
I suppose that the author of this test would insist on calling a picture
wrong which showed a baby with a safety-razor in his hand or an
overshoe on his head, and yet a photograph of the Public Library could
not be more true to life.

That is my great trouble in taking tests and examinations of any kind. I
always want to argue with the examiner, because the examiner is always
so obviously wrong.

LXII

THE BROW-ELEVATION IN HUMOR

After an author has been dead for some time, it becomes increasingly
difficult for his publishers to get out a new book by him each year.
Without recourse to the ouija board, Harper & Brothers manage to do very
well by Mark Twain, considering that all they have to work with are the
books that he wrote when he was alive. Each year we get something from
the pen of the famous humorist, even though the ink has faded slightly.
An introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine and a hitherto unpublished
photograph as a frontspiece, and there you are--the season's new Mark
Twain book.

This season it is "Moments With Mark Twain," a collection of excerpts
from his works for quick and handy reading. We may look for further
books in this series in 1923, 1924, 1925, &c., to be entitled "Half
Hours With Mark Twain" (the selections a trifle longer), "Pleasant
Week-Ends With Mark Twain," "Indian Summer With Mark Twain," &c.

There is an interesting comparison between this sample bottle of the
humor of Mark Twain and that contained in the volume entitled "Something
Else Again," by Franklin P. Adams. The latter is a volume of verse and
burlesques which have appeared in the newspapers and magazines.

In the days when Mark Twain was