Teacher—“Now, I want all the children to look at Tommy’s hands, and see how clean they are, and see if all of you cannot come to school with cleaner hands. Tommy, perhaps, will tell us how he keeps them so nice?”
Tommy—“Yes ’m; mother makes me wash the breakfast things every morning.”
BRAIN-BEWILDERERS.
An amusing periodical got up by the boys of a certain college gives a capital skit on the style of examination-papers frequently presented for the torture of pupils. Here are a few examples:—
Supposing the River Murray to be three cubits in breadth—which it isn’t—what is the average height of the Alps, stocks being at nineteen and a-half?
If in autumn apples cost fourpence per pound in Melbourne, and potatoes a shilling a score in spring, when will greengages be sold in Brisbane at three-halfpence each, Sydney oranges being at a discount of five per cent.?
If two men can kill twelve kangaroos in going up the right side of a rectangular turnip-field, how many would be killed by five men and a terrier pup in going down the other side?
If a milkmaid four feet ten inches in height, while sitting on a three-legged stool, took four pints of milk out of every fifteen cows, what was the size of the field in which the animals grazed, and what was the girl’s name, age, and the occupation of her grandfather?
If thirty thousand millions of human beings have lived since the beginning of the world, how many may we safely say will die before the end of it? N.B.—This example to be worked out by simple subtraction, algebra, and the rule of three. Compare results.