SHORT STORIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17483, 29 May 1920, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHORT STORIES.

ALWAYS POLITE. Tommy had been invited, out to tea. He wanted to have the afternoon off .from school, but his mother, would not hear of it. As his bed-time was seven o'clock, he, had rather a short visit, and us he was leaving his hostess said cordially :— "I'm so sorry you've been able to stay such a little while, dear." ( .. Tommy remembered his mother's injunctions to be polite on • all. occasions, and answered sweetly :— "Oh, it's quito long enough thank you." THE FARM LADY SCORES. : ;c ;■ Townsfolk at times have their joke, or think they have it, at the- expense of people who havo their homo::in country; but sometimes tho latter -get their own back. ...;..,■•,. Tho otter day, at a comfortable littlo farm in the country, a young motorcyclist, who considers himself:> fairly smart, was admiring gome lino large-eggs that he saw lying in a dish, and he: said to the good lady : "What kind; of a hen : would it lie who laid them!" ~''■■'■■'( "I don't know what sort they would call it in your part of tho country!" was; the adroit reply, "but about hero, they call it a duck. ' TO ORDER A melancholy-looking man entered the establishment of a photographer: '■~'■'. "I should like a picturo of myself weeping beside my wife's grave," he expiated. :* •'. "I fear 1 have not the necessary accessories here," said the photographer. Then he-added facetiously: "Couldn't we ar-. range to havo the portrait made rt thegrave itself?" '.! :./ V\-. *\o." said the man: "that's; .in: New;' York State. It would he too expensive to go there. Just you fix i'n some > k : nd. of. jrrave here in the shop. I could : weep on. that. It's no trouble for me.:' .to weep anywhere." AN INSURANCE STORY. '■ An old retired Fife farmer... bought "a nice house in a fairly large vllagc. Shortly afterwards he was called on every day. or two by the local agent for ah insurance