| | PAGE |
| Note | [xi] |
| My Dog—Bill Nye | [1] |
| Knee-Deep in June—James Whitcomb Riley | [4] |
| Baked Beans and Culture—Eugene Field | [8] |
| The Nice People—H. C. Bunner | [12] |
| The Eureky Rat-Trap—C. B. Lewis (“M Quad”) | [24] |
| The School Examination—George Washington Cable | [28] |
| “Wouldn’t You like to Know?”—John G. Saxe | [35] |
| The Artless Prattle of Childhood—Robert Jones Burdette | [38] |
| Speech on the Babies—Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”) | [44] |
| On Cyclones—Bill Nye | [49] |
| Our Correspondent has the Honour to be—R. H. Newell (“Orpheus C. Kerr”) | [51] |
| Yawcob Strauss—Charles Follen Adams | [61] |
| The Minister’s Wooing—Harriet Beecher Stowe | [63] |
| Albina McLush—Nathaniel Parker Willis | [73] |
| A Long Time Ago—John Barr | [77] |
| The Professor under Chloroform—Oliver Wendell Holmes | [82] |
| Our Travelled Parson—Will Carleton | [85] |
| A Railroad “Recussant”—L. Gaylord Clark | [91] |
| An Unmarried Female—Marietta Holley | [93] |
| The Courtin’—James Russell Lowell | [103] |
| The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story—Joel Chandler Harris | [108] |
| Pomona’s Novel—Frank R. Stockton | [111] |
| Tempest in a Tub—J. M. Bailey | [128] |
| The Stout Gentleman—Washington Irving | [131] |
| My Summer in a Garden—Charles Dudley Warner | [144] |
| The Quaker Coquette—Charles Graham Halpine | [156] |
| Cat-Fishing—W. L. Alden | [158] |
| Captain Stick and Tony—Johnson T. Hooper | [162] |
| “Items” from the Press of Interior California—Ambrose Bierce (“Dod Grile”) | [166] |
| An Avalanche of Drugs | [168] |
| Music—Ambrose Bierce (“Dod Grile”) | [174] |
| Maxims—Benjamin Franklin | [175] |
| Model of a Letter of Recommendation of a Person you are Unacquainted with—Benjamin Franklin | [176] |
| Echo-Song—Thos. Bailey Aldrich | [176] |
| Colonel Mulberry Sellers—Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”) | [179] |
| The Owl-Critic—Jas. T. Fields | [187] |
| Annihilates an Oberlinite—Petroleum V. Nasby | [191] |
| An Economical Project—Benjamin Franklin | [193] |
| Miss Mehetabel’s Son—Thos. Bailey Aldrich | [199] |
| Peck’s Bad Boy—George W. Peck | [216] |
| The British Knock—William Austin | [221] |
| A Captive Maiden | [225] |
| Mrs. Partington in Court—Benjamin Penhallon Shillaber (“Mrs. Partington”) | [227] |
| The Music-Grinders—Oliver Wendell Holmes | [228] |
| Miss Crump’s Song—Augustus Baldwin Longstreet | [232] |
| A Polyglot Barber—Samuel S. Cox | [238] |
| At the Giant’s Causeway—Robert Barr (“Luke Sharp”) | [243] |
| Hans Breitmann’s Barty—Charles Godfrey Leland | [250] |
| Our New Bedstead—Frederick Swartout Cozzens | [253] |
| A Quilting—Sam Slick | [259] |
| A Patented Child—W. L. Alden | [265] |
| A Talk about Tea—Frederick S. Cozzens | [269] |
| Old Aunt Mary’s—James Whitcomb Riley | [273] |
| A Petition of the Left Hand—Benjamin Franklin | [275] |
| Women’s Fashions—Nathaniel Ward | [277] |
| The Newsboy—Joseph C. Neal | [281] |
| The Boys around the House—C. B. Lewis (“M Quad”) | [285] |
| Mr. Doty Mad—Eugene Field | [287] |
| Our Two Opinions—Eugene Field | [289] |
| One of Mr. Ward’s Business Letters—Artemus Ward | [291] |
| The Showman’s Courtship—Artemus Ward | [292] |
| Ye Pedagogue—John Godfrey Saxe | [295] |
| Settling under Difficulties—Robert J. Burdette | [298] |
| Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe—Nathaniel Hawthorne | [300] |
| Going to California—Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber (“Mrs. Partington”) | [316] |
| “Roughing It”—Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”) | [318] |
| The Head-Writer—C. B. Lewis (“M Quad”) | [322] |
| Peleg W. Ponder; or, The Politician without a Side—Joseph C. Neal | [326] |
| The Shakers—Artemus Ward | [332] |
| “Early Rising”—John G. Saxe | [340] |
| How Santa Claus came to Simpson’s Bar—Bret Harte | [342] |
| The Breach of Promise Case—Ralph Keeler | [362] |
| Epitaph for Himself—Benjamin Franklin | [373] |
| The Duke of Bridgewater—Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”) | [373] |
| A Visit to Brigham Young—Artemus Ward | [380] |
| Duet for the Breakfast-Table—Charles Graham Halpine | [385] |
| Kitty Answers—William Dean Howells | [387] |
| Puck—James Whitcomb Riley | [395] |
| The Revenge of St. Nicholas—James K. Paulding | [396] |
| An Aphorism and a Lecture—Oliver Wendell Holmes | [412] |
| Aphorisms—Thoreau | [419] |
| An English Funeral—William Austin | [420] |
| A Lost Child | [420] |
| Among the Spirits—Artemus Ward | [422] |
| Poetry and the Poet—H. C. Bunner | [426] |
| A New System of English Grammar—“John Phœnix” | [427] |
| Biographical Index of American Humorists | [437] |