"Well, Bobbie," said a kindly old gentleman to a little friend of his, aged five, "what's new up at your house?"

"Nothin' much 'cept I've got a new baby brother."

"You don't mean it! Well, I suppose you're very fond of him?"

"Nope; he's no good--yells all the time."

"Why don't you send him back?"

"Can't; we've used him four days already."

THE SOFT ANSWER

A clergyman visiting the house of one of his parishioners caught a young lady of the house in the act of curling her hair with a curling iron. He exclaimed, "My dear young lady, if God intended your hair to be curly He would curl it Himself."

"He did curl it when I was little," she replied, "but I am now grown up. He thinks I can take care of it myself."

CAME DOWN HARD