School guardian. Widowed priest plays the harmonium and sings: "Rest with the saints."

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In July the red bird sings the whole morning.

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"A large selection of cigs"[1]—so read X. every day when he went down the street, and wondered how one could deal only in cigs and who wanted them. It took him thirty years before he read it correctly: "A large selection of cigars."

[Footnote 1: Cigs in Russian is a kind of fish.]

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A bride to an engineer: a dynamite cartridge filled with one-hundred-rouble notes.

* * * * *

"I have not read Herbert Spencer. Tell me his subjects. What does he write about?" "I want to paint a panel for the Paris exhibition. Suggest a subject." (A wearisome lady.)