THE STORYTELLER

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 57, 6 March 1912, Page 8

THE STORYTELLER

I SECRET SOURCE OF STRENGTH. i Recently a Glasgow minister was calling upon a dear old lady, one of the "pillars" of the churoh to which they both belonged. As he thought of her long and useful life, and looked upon her sweet, placid countenance, bearing but few tokens of her 92 years of earthly pilgrimage, he was moved to ask her: "My dear Mrs. S , what has been ihe chief source of your strength during al these years? What has appealed to you as the real basis of your unusual rigour of mind and body, and has been to you an unfailing comfort through joy and sorrow? Tell me. that I may pass the secret on to others, and, if possible, profit by it myself." The old lady thought a. moment, then, lifting her eyes, dim with age, yet kindling with sweet memories of the past, answered briefly:— ••Victuals." good Business. "Pitcher, old man!" cried the longuneeen pal in the Swedish timber trade, "this meeting calls for a bottle with the bubbles in it. I hare just com<back from Switzerland after concluding a little contract that will put twentv per cent, on my profits for the rest of my business life. Missie, a bottle of. St. Marceaux." Ten second interval. "You see. my trade is principally in deals and white wood?-. In what" we call a "standard" of deals—hundred an' i twenty twelve-foot board*, an inch and J a half by eleven—there will be on the average five-and-twentv with pine knotholes in 'em. Hitherto. ] have regarded these as waste —merp firewood. But now I've got in with a big Swiss toy factory, and they an= only too glad to take all the knot-holed pines I can send 'em."

*'H'm! What do they use 'm for?" '"Earholes for wooden horses. But as I was saying "

HE ABSANGED XT. I Joe, the regular office boy had been | sick for several weeks, so the head of the office was forced to engage a substitute. The substitute proved such an intelligent boy that the employer was loath to let Mm go. "But I have worked for you for two years.*' pleaded the regular boy as he asked to return. "'Well, if you can arrange with Tommy, then you can come back." said the employer. The next day the employer came down to his office. The top of his desk was smashed and an ink bottle had been overturned, while the glass in the door was broken where a paper weight had been thrown through. The papers in the office were scattered over the floor, and the furniture was in wild disarray. Seated in the midst of this wreckage, his eye* beautifully blackened, his no»e bleeding and his clothes torn nearly to ehredi was the regular office boy. When he saw the employer, his *ejes lit up in triumph- "Tommy ia he;