A girl of twelve: "Teacher, I want Tolstoi's 'Little Women.'"
A deeply irritated man: "Look here, I'd like to know what this means! D'ye see this postal? Well, look there: 'Please return Evans's 'A Sailor's Log' which is charged on your card. The fine amounts to twenty cents.' I ain't never had no book outer this place!"
Miss Grant: "Perhaps you took it from the central library, or one of the other branches?"
The irritated one: "No, I didn't neither. I ain't never had no books outer no library!"
His companion, another man, with views on capital and labor: "Aw, it's just one of Carnegie's games to get money out of yer."
The irritated man: "Well, he won't get no money outer me."
Miss Grant, who has read the name "John Smith" on the other side of the post-card: "Perhaps this came to you by mistake—it was meant for someone else of the same name, maybe."
The irritated man: "Well, you can keep it—I don't want it, anyhow."
He and his friend depart, much pleased at having baffled Carnegie this time.
Miss French, the other librarian, laying a very dirty slip of paper on Miss Grant's desk: "What do you suppose this means? There is a boy waiting for the book, but we haven't anything about shingling—I've looked in the catalogue twice."