Three artists were trying to see who had painted the most realistic picture.
Why, I painted a picture of Abraham Lincoln which was so lifelike that I had to shave it every day, said the first artist.
Oh, that’s nothing, said the second. I once painted a picture of a piece of marble which was so like one that when I threw it in some water it splashed like real marble and sank.
Why, that’s nothing, said the third, I painted a picture of a hen, and, thinking it no good, threw it in the waste-basket, and it laid there.
Not a few people lose their wits in the midst of a fire. They will toss a costly vase out of the window, but carry the tongs carefully downstairs and out to a place of safety. They remind us of one of the anecdotes of Mark Twain when he was a Mississippi River pilot, as told in St. Nicholas.
Boys, said the great humorist to a group of his friends—I had great presence of mind once. It was at a fire. An old man leaned out of a four-story building calling for help. Everybody in the crowd below looked up, but nobody did anything. The ladders weren’t long enough. Nobody had any presence of mind—nobody but me. I came to the rescue. I yelled for a rope. When it came I threw the old man the end of it. He caught it, and I told him to tie it around his waist. He did so, and I pulled him down!
Arkansaw Native—How much for takin’ the pictures of my children?