“Where in the world,” cried one of them impatiently, “is that end?”
“I bet,” returned the other, “they have cut it off.”
The Long Dressing-gown
The wife of a well-known Berliner presented him on his birthday with a dressing-gown. Agreeably surprised, he tried it on, but found that it was about six inches too long. In the night a violent storm occurred. The anxious wife arose and, to pass the time, took the dressing-gown and shortened it. Then she retired again.
Now, with the family lived a very active sister-in-law, who was in the habit of rising very early. On this morning she saw the dressing-gown, and thinking to please her brother-in-law, she took it down and shortened it six inches more. After breakfast the two ladies went to market, and the husband, thinking of his dressing-gown, before going to business, ordered the cook to take it to the tailor, and have it shortened about six inches. In the afternoon the tailor returned it—a jacket with tails.
A Suabian Prussian-hater
“We are nowhere, since we joined the Prussians; we must be soldiers, we must pay taxes, and we must keep our mouths shut!”
“Now, tell the truth, Hans; when were you a soldier? When did you pay taxes, and when did you ever keep your mouth shut?”
Equal to the Occasion
A clergyman living near Rastock, had an old man, one of his farm-hands, drive him to Warnemünde to inspect a man-of-war. On the way he talked about the big vessel they were going to see.