B.A.!—During a reading lesson, taken from Standard III. Historical Reader, the pupil teacher asked what the letters "B.C." represented. On receiving the answer "Before Christ," she ventured to improve the opportunity by asking for the meaning of other abbreviations, amongst which was B.A. A little girl at once said: "Before Adam!"
Etc.!—"What do we imply when we use this abbreviation?" asked the teacher. "It is a sign," said a young one very sententiously, "which is used to make believe you know more than you really do!"
"Painted on the Water-carts."—"What is a Martyr?" asked the inspector. "A water-cart." "A water-cart?" "Yes, sir." The inspector was puzzled; but after long cogitation he recalled the fact that he was in the parish of St. George the Martyr. This parish does its own contracting, and the boy has seen "St. George the Martyr" painted on the water-carts.
What is a Zebra?—A class of Standard II. in a small town in Westmoreland was once questioned about the zebra. There seemed to be a great lack of knowledge about it, and the young teacher strove with heroic patience to draw some answer from his pupils. Great was the delight of both teacher and class on receiving the following apt definition from one of their number: "Please, sir, it's like a donkey with a Kendal Hornet's jersey on."
"Jography."—"Well, little boys, and what is Geography?" beamed the inspector, after getting correctly some names of rivers, mountains, &c. No answer for two minutes by the clock. Then one timid hand is raised in answer to the question: "Please, sir, jography is a ball on which we live!" This recalls the story of the boy who was asked for a proof that the world is round. His answer was: "It says in the Bible, World without end!"