What Binks Learned.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 31 July 1914, Page 8

What Binks Learned.

! Young Cicero Binks was an eru-* ' dite youth, and a regular demon for knowledge for.sooth. At his studies he "swotted" to tell you the truth, for eight or ten hours every 1 day. To give you some little idea :of his worth, he knew to a frac- ; tion the age of the earth, the *' actual weight of the moon and its girth, and how far all the stars were away. I He could tell you the reason why '. eggs are not meat, why toadstools : and hedgehogs are not good to eat, ! also why there can never be cold I without heat, and why humble-bees don't make honey. He could analyse I whisky and black-currant tart, and j repeat Shakespeare's plays if you ' gave him a start. • In fact, he was 1 crammed full of science and art, '; knowing even why Robey is funny.

"One can ne'er learn too much," with a smile he would say. But he altered his mind, overhearing one day two friends, who imagined him out of the way, stating facts new to Binks, without doubt.

"What an ugly old-beggar that Binks is !" said one. Said the other, "The biggest ass under the sun." And the knowledge Binks learned by the time they had done, he'd have been much more happy without.