“Yes; but it is the only copy in existence.”
“But if it should be reprinted?”
“Are you mad? Who’d be fool enough to buy it?”
At a Restaurant.—Customer (ostentatiously sniffing at his plate): “I say, waiter, this fish isn’t fresh!”
“Oh yes, it is, sir!”
“What?—I assure you it smells.”
Waiter (mysteriously): “No, sir, you’re mistaken; it’s that other gentleman’s cutlet!”
A worthless poet showed Parini two sonnets he had written on the occasion of a wedding, asking him to read them both, and suggest which he should print. Parini read one, and restored it to the author, saying, “Print the other!” The poet tried to insist on his reading the second, but Parini would say nothing but “Print the other!”
Spippoletti’s son having reached an age when the heart is susceptible, fell in love with a pretty little milliner, and wrote to her declaring his eternal devotion. After filling four pages with passionate adjurations and orthographical mistakes, he concluded thus—
“I hope that my offers will be acceptable to you, and expect from you shortly an affirmative reply, in which you will say either yes or no.”