Possible.

Otago Witness, Issue 2056, 20 July 1893, Page 50

Possible.

Years ago, when crinolines were worn, a stylishly-dressed yonng lady was one evening on her way in the country to meet some friends. Being almost a stranger, and not well knowing her way, she came to a standstill. Then, seeing a boy near a gateway in charge of cattle, she crossed over to him and gracefully inquired ; " Can I get through this gate to the river P"

He, with his eyes fixed upon her skirts, replied: "You can if you squeeze a little; a ioad of hay Went? through this morning."

TTke Joke "Was Against Himself. A landed proprietor from the German provinces was staying not long ago at an hotel in Berlin. He got into conversation with the landlord one evening, and they talked of the hardness of the times. "It seems to me," said the visitor, " that the Berlin people have got no money left," taking from his pocket as he spoke a bulky purse, from which he took a couple of bank notes, twisted them into a spill, and calmly lit his cigar. Boniface and the other people present stared at him in open-mouthed amazement. A few hours afterwards came the time of the visitor's departure. Once more he took out his purse, this, time in order to pay his bill. He counted through his notes, and suddenly turned white, .and then red. ' He found himself still in possession of a score of .flash notes, which he kept for the purpose of playing practical jokes ; but he- had lit his cigar with the only two genuine notes he had with him !

Sayed' By a Ghost. I tell the tale as it was told to me.

' There had been a period of distress among the farmers. The oats had failed, the hay had been drowned by the weather and the floods, the cattle had had scarcely anything to eat, and there was something like starvation in the dales. ■ The curate had collected a subscription in the lower country, and was himself taking about the money to the different farms, but the distances were so great that he was sometimes kept till quife late at night. One evening on his outward journey he suddenly became aware of a figare moving beside him, and in the gloaming he 1 recognised his brother, who had died some time before.

He was too awe-struck for any words, and after keeping, by his side for some distance over the lonely moor, the silent figure disappeared. He noted dawn the time and the vision, but nothing occurred to throw any light upon it. Some years after he had taken the duty at a jail in another part of the country, and one of the prisoners, being under sentence, desired to make a confession to him. He told a number of crimes, and ended with : •• I was very ie xr once taking your life, Eir. It was in that bad year ; I heard as how you went carrying money about in those lonesome dales. I hid behind jiho big boalders on the brown moor, I seen you coming up, and waited till you should be near enough, but that night you were not alone" — Lady Verney's " In the Dales Sixty Years Since."