Mrs. Guy Wood went for a row on Keuka Lake, N. Y., the other day and dangled her hand in the water over the edge of the boat. All at once she saw a lake trout dart toward her hand and she made a grab for it. She scooped the fish up into the boat, and it was found to be a trout weighing two pounds.
In Sumatra the wind decides the length of time a widow should remain single. Just after her husband's death she plants a flagstaff at her door, upon which a flag is raised. While the flag remains untorn by the wind, the etiquette of Sumatra forbids her to marry, but at the first rent, however tiny, she can lay aside her weeds, assume her most bewitching smile and accept the first man who presents himself.
A cat belonging to Sampson Alleman, of Tallyho, W. Va., killed a large copperhead snake the other day, after a vicious battle with the reptile. The cat was wandering around in the yard when it found the snake coiled up ready to spring. The cat sprang first and alighted on the back of the snake's neck. It bit viciously, but got away before the snake could strike. These tactics were repeated till the snake was worn out, when the cat bit it to death.
A student of Columbia University was living with his mother at one of the large hotels in New York. When preparing for an examination he often brought his books to the table and worked at Latin and Greek between the courses of his dinner. It happened one evening that he had considerable trouble over his Greek. The man who waited on the table saw his predicament and finally said quietly: "If you will let me come to you at such a time this evening I will be glad to help you over that translation." The boy was surprised, but eagerly reached for any aid in sight. It transpired that the waiter was a graduate of a European university, abundantly able to coach the puzzled student.
Nothing is more wonderful to investigators than the display of strength in insects compared with that in man. Ants will carry loads forty or fifty times as heavy as themselves. The beetle can move a weight one hundred and twelve times his own weight. The house-fly gives six hundred strokes of its wings in one second, and this enables it to go a distance of thirty-five feet. Probably the most wonderful of all is the dragon-fly. It can speed through the air at the rate of sixty miles an hour, and, more wonderful still, can stop instantaneously in its flight or move backward or sideways without changing the position of its body. Hundreds of bees can hang one to another without tearing away the feet of the upper one. It has been estimated that if an elephant were as strong in proportion to its weight as a male beetle it would be able to overturn a "skyscraper." In leaping great distances this strength is shown in another phase. If a horse could jump as far in proportion to its weight as a flea can to his, the horse would jump about two thousand miles.
WITH THE FUNNY FELLOWS.
"Well, my little man," inquired a visitor pleasantly, "who are you?" "I'm the baby's brother," was the ingenuous reply.
Mistress—Bridget, it always seems to me that the crankiest mistresses get the best cooks. Cook—Ah! Go on wid yer blarney!
"Your horse isn't timid, I suppose?" "Timid? Why, my dear sir, he sleeps every night alone in his stable without any light."