TABLE TOPICS.

The candidates for ancient athletic games were dieted on boiled grain, with warm water, cheese, dried figs, but no meat.

An unpleasant reminder.—(Scene, Thanksgiving dinner, everybody commenting on the immense size of the turkey.) An appalling silence fell upon the crowd when Tommy cried out, "Mamma, is that the old sore-headed turkey?"

The eminent Prof. Wilder was reared a vegetarian, having passed his earlier years without even knowing that flesh food was ever eaten by human beings. When six years old, he saw on the table for the first time, a roasted chicken, at which he gazed for some moments in great bewilderment, when he seemed to make a discovery, and in his astonishment burst out with the remark, "I'll bet that's a dead hen!"

A story is told of a minister who was spending the day in the country, and was invited to dine. There was chicken for dinner, much to the grief of a little boy of the household, who had lost his favorite hen to provide for the feast. After dinner, prayer was proposed, and while the preacher was praying, a poor little lonesome chicken came running under the house, crying for its absent mother. The little boy shouted, "Peepy! Peepy! I didn't kill your mother! They killed her for that big preacher's dinner!" The "Amen" was said very suddenly.