He that wears a watch, two things must do;
Pocket his watch and watch his pocket too.
I labor here with all my might,
To tell the hours of day and night;
Therefore, example take by me,
And serve the Lord as I serve thee.
Echo Verse.
It was a sharp bit of echo verse that the Sunday Times of London threw off in 1831, when tickets to hear the great violinist were very high—
What are they who pay three guineas
To hear a tune of Paganini's?
Echo—Pack o' ninnies.
Signature of the Cross.
The mark which persons who are unable to write are required to make instead of their signatures, is in the form of a cross; and this practice having formerly been followed by kings and nobles, is constantly referred to as an instance of the deplorable ignorance of ancient times. This signature is not, however, invariably a proof of ignorance. Anciently, the use of the mark was not confined to illiterate persons; for among the Saxons the mark of the cross, as an attestation of the good faith of the persons signing, was required to be attached to the signature of those who could write, as well as to stand in the place of the signature of those who could not write.
Simply on Account of her Name.
Herrera, the Spanish historian, records an anecdote in which the choice of a queen entirely arose from her name. When two French ambassadors negotiated a marriage between one of the Spanish princesses and Louis VIII., the names of the royal females were Urraca and Blanche. The former was the elder and the more beautiful, and intended by the Spanish court for the French monarch; but they resolutely preferred Blanche, observing that the name of Urraca would never do! And for the sake of a more mellifluous sound, they carried off the happier-named but less beautiful princess.