BOTHERSOME BILLS.

Defter at the anvil than at the desk was a village blacksmith who held a customer responsible for a little account running:

To menden to broken sorspuns4 punse
To handl to a kleffr6 "
To pointen 3 iron skurrs3 "
To repairen a lanton2 "
A klapper to a bel8 "
Medsen attenden a cow sick the numoraman a bad i 6 "
To arf a da elpen a fillup a taken in arvist1 shillin
To a hole da elpen a fillup a taken in arvist2  "  
  Totle of altigether5 shillins and fippunse.

That the honest man’s services had been requisitioned for the mending of two saucepans, putting a new handle to an old cleaver, sharpening three blunted iron skewers, repairing a lantern, and providing a bell with a clapper is clear enough; and by resolving “a fillup” into “A. Phillip,” all obscurity is removed from the last two items, but “the numoraman a bad i” is a nut the reader must crack for himself.


ONE FROM A PUBLICAN.

He stabled a horse for a night, and sent it home next day with a bill debiting the owner:

To anos4/6
To agitinonimom  -/6
5/-

A LAUNDRY BILL.

A tourist in Tasmania, being called upon to pay a native dame of the wash-tub “OOo III,” opened his eyes and ejaculated, “O!” but the good woman explained that he owed her just two and ninepence, a big O standing for a shilling, a little one for sixpence, and each I for a penny.