Varieties.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 731, 26 September 1870, Page 3

Varieties.

The form of the marriage service in Indiana haß been changed to suit the laws of that State, and for the phrase, " until death do us part," there has been substituted, " until dirorced according to law." The following epigram, which we find in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, is, tre hear, as true in England a3 in America :— •• Though College bills, like melting snow, Are of a binding nature, In these the • Pater,' not the Sun, . Becomes the liquidator." There are two distinct sorts of what we call bashfulness ; this, the awkwardness of a booby, which a few steps into the world will convert into the pertnesa of a coxcomb ; that, a consciousness which the most delicate feelings produce, and the most extensive knowledge cannot always remove. A young lady once married a man by the name of Dust against the wish of her parents. After a short time they lived unhappily together, and she returned to her father's house ; but he refused to see her, saying, " Dust thou art, and unto Dust thou shaft return ; " and she got up and " dusted." Said a loving wife to her husband, " Will you never learn, my dear, the difference between real and exchangeable value ? " — The husband, tired of political economists in petticoats, replied, " Ah, yes, my dear, I know your great learning and many virtues. That's your real value. But I know also that none of my married friends would change wives with me. That's your exchangeable value." A lady teacher in a Sunday school recently had occasion to illustrate a lesson on faith by the Btory of a child who was told by his father to drop him from an elevated place into his arms. The father could not be seen by the child, yet, when commanded, it dropped. Upon the teacher asking her class what was shown by this story, a bright little fellow immediately replied, "It showed he had pluck." We heard from a Sunday school teacher the other day an illustration of one kind of forgiveness. Improving upon the day's lesson, the teacher asked a boy whether, in view of what he bad been studying and repeating, he could forgive those who had wronged him. " Could you," said the teacher, " forgive a boy, for example, who had insulted or struck you ?" " Y-e-s, sir," replied the lad, very slowly, "I— guess I — could; but," he added, in a much more rapid manner, " I could if he was bigger than I am."