OBLIGED TO REFUSE.
BY MADGE ELLIOT.
An agile Gibbon, swinging from
The top branch of a tree,
Her brown-faced baby in her arms,
A humming-bird did see
(Upon a lower bough he sat)
Of Puff-leg family.
"Oh dear!" she cried, "I wish you'd give
One of your puffs to me;
I hear that they are always used
In white society.
And though I have no powder, yet
A pleasure it would be
To dab my face and arms with it,
Like dames of high degree.
And then I'm sure my darling pet
Would greatly like it too;
She is the loveliest of babes—"
"That, ma'am, is very true,"
The humming-bird made haste to say;
"She much resembles you.
But that small gift you ask is not
Like stocking nor like shoe:
It won't come off, for it, my friend,
Grew with me as I grew.
And so I fear I must refuse
The puff you sweetly beg.
Could I spare it? Why, really, now,
I couldn't spare my leg."
An Odd Combination.—The year 1881 will be a mathematical curiosity. From left to right and from right to left it reads the same; 18 divided by 2 gives 9 as a quotient; 81 divided by 9 gives 9; if divided by 9, the quotient contains a 9; if multiplied by 9, the product contains two 9's; 1 and 8 are 9; 8 and 1 are 9. If the 18 be placed under the 81 and added, the sum is 99. If the figures be added thus, 1, 8, 8, 1, it will give 18. Reading from left to right it is 18, and reading from right to left it is 18, and 18 is two-ninths of 81. By adding, dividing, and multiplying, nineteen 9's are produced, being one 9 for each year required to complete the century.
HOME RETURNING.