SINGLE HANDED ALPHABET.

269. The deaf and dumb converse with each other, and with their teachers, by signs made with their hands. There are two ways of making the letters with the fingers; in one, both hands are used; in the other, only one. Above, you see how the letters are made with one hand.

270. When are the letters like the keys of a piano?

271.

Up and down two buckets ply

A single well within;

While the one comes full on high,

One the deeps must win.

Full or empty, never ending,

Rising now, and now descending,

Always while you quaff from this,

That one lost in the abyss,

From that well the waters living

Never both together giving.

272.

Come from my first—ay, come! the battle dawn is nigh,

And the screaming trump and thundering drum are calling thee to die!

Fight as thy father fought, fall as thy father fell;

Thy task is taught, thy shroud is wrought, so forward, and farewell!

Toll ye, my second, toll! Fill high the flambeau’s light,

And sing the hymn of a parted soul beneath the silent night,

The wreath upon his head, the cross upon his breast,

Let the prayer be said, and the tear be shed—so take him to his rest.

Call ye my whole—ay, call the lord of lute and lay,

And let him greet the sable pall with a noble song to-day;

Go, call him by his name! no fitter hand may crave

To light the flame of a soldier’s fame on the turf of a soldier’s grave.

273. Once in a minute, twice in a moment, once in a man’s life?

274. A man said “I lie.” Did he lie, or did he tell the truth?

275. Why is the butcher’s dog in the parlor like your mother receiving strange company?

276. Why should a hound never be admitted into the house?

277. Why is your favorite puppy like a doll?

278. How can a person live eighty years, and see only twenty birthdays?

279. What is the difference between twenty four quart bottles, and four and twenty quart bottles?

280. How will you arrange four 9’s so as to make one hundred?

281.

Amid the serpent race is one

That earth did never bear;

In speed and fury there be none

That can with it compare.

With fearful hiss—its prey to grasp—

It darts its dazzling course,

And locks in one destroying clasp

The horseman and the horse.

It loves the loftiest heights to haunt—

No bolt its prey secures;

In vain its mail may valor vaunt,

For steel its fury lures!

As slightest straw whirled by the wind,

It snaps the starkest tree;

It can the might of metal grind,

How hard soe’er it be!

Yet ne’er but once the monster tries

The prey it threats to gain:

In its own wrath consumed it dies,

And while it slays is slain.

282. A went to a shoemaker, B, and ordered a pair of boots. At the time appointed for their completion, A called for his boots. The price was $5. A gave B a 20 dollar note, which, not being able to change, he went to C, who gave him four $5 notes. B gave A three of the notes, and kept one. The next day C came to B and told him his $20 note was a counterfeit. B gave C four $5 notes, three of which he borrowed from D. How much did B lose by the operation?

283. When a boy falls, what does he fall against?

284. When he is caught stealing, what does he catch?

285. How many feet ought a thief to have?

286. Why is Tom Tumbledown like Adam when he saw the apple?

287. A friend asserted to me a day or two since, that forty horses only had eighty-four legs. How did it come?

A RIDDLE WITHIN A RIDDLE.

288.

Moce ye inugeison nose hist dilerd suesg

Ti si ton cufidlift ouy liwl socfens,

Thaw si hatt burmen—hiwhc fi ouy ivdedi,

Ouy hent liwl hington veale no theire dies?

289. Our family is large, but not much more than one third as large as that of Jacob when he went to live in Egypt. But, like the family of that ancient patriarch, we often migrate to other countries. We do not keep together, whether at home or abroad; we are scattered about in every direction,—at once masters, servants, and slaves to forty-four millions of people. Not a book is printed without our aid; and, what is stranger still, we are all found at the same time in every book in every library and country where the English language is spoken; and on almost every page. Sometimes, though rarely, two of us stand side by side. It is still more rare for us all to appear together arranged in the same order. Nothing is more common with people than to place us in rows or platoons; but whether in militia, army, or navy—for some of us are employed in all these—we are seldom arranged twice alike. Sometimes one of us stands first; sometimes another. Sometimes a row or platoon consists of only two or three of us; at others of many more; and occasionally of twelve, fifteen, or twenty; and, strangest to relate of all, we can be so placed as to make out about 50,000 rows, no two of which will be exactly alike. Must we not, then, be a useful family? And what, think you, is our family name?

290. | | | | | | . Add five more marks to these six, so as to make nine.

291. What tree is that, which has twelve branches, thirty leaves on each branch, and each leaf white on one side, and black on the other?

292.

293. Which of the planets would the tortoise like best to live in?

294. Why is a picture surrounded by books like a happy man?

295. Mother sent Mary for an evergreen. The gardener brought a holly. Mary pointed to the sky, and the gardener brought what she wanted. What did Mary mean?

296. When the day breaks, what becomes of the fragments?

297. Novus vir bonus vir ivit ad caudam vel habere suam vestem homines mortuos.

298. EE Marriage ee.

299. What bird is that which has no wings?

300. Add something to 9 to make it less.

301. Why is Satan on a shed like a bankrupt?

302. How is it that trees put on their summer dresses, without opening their trunks?

303. Of three words make one, by the insertion of a single letter.

304. Of a word of one syllable, make a word of three syllables, by the addition of a single letter.

305.

Ages ago, when Greece was young,

And Homer, blind and wandering, sung;

Where’er he roamed, through street or field,

My first the noble bard upheld;

Look to the new moon for my next,

You’ll see it there, but if perplexed,

Go ask the huntsman, he can show

My name—he gives it many a blow;

My whole, as you will quickly see,

Is a large town in Tuscany,

Which ladies soon will recognize—

A favorite head-dress it supplies.

306. Why is an elephant like a chair?

307. Mr. —wood being at the . of king of terrors, 10 mills for his quakers, and who, which and what. They odor for Dr. Juvenile Humanity, who

to Dr. Hay preservers, and little devil behold scarlet his assistance; but, B 4 he arrived, the not legally good

changed color, and taker was ct for.
the

308. Given the street and the hour, to find at once the number of children in the street.

309. Given the section of the city, to find at once the number of loafers and vagabonds that infest it.