WIT AND HUMOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 27 August 1907, Page 4

WIT AND HUMOR.

THE SMALL VOICE. The Temple had not yet recovered from its laughter over a law court incident which had found its way into the papers. It was a suiT in Chancery, and there was a great gathering of the deceased's family, quarrelling, as relatives will, over the division of the spoils. The lawyers engaged chuckled, for the suit seemed likely to be prolonged and complicated. There were many lawyers, too, and the judge marvelled at the immensity of

the deceased man's family as s>ilk "and stuff goods rose it-, vapid succession, introducing themselves with the usual formula: "And tlic fifteenth cousin removed, as the ease may be, of the deceased." The procession seemed interminable, but at last it came to an end. Then a small voice was heard timidly saying from the hack of the court:

"May I be allowed to sneak, my lord?"

There was a dead silence as his lordship adjusted his spectacles and asked rather dejectedly:

'Who are you?"

The answer was, to say the least, unexpected.

"I am the 'deceased,' my lord," said the modest voice from the hack of the court.

That ended the action. Quite un« known to his relatives, the "deceased" had turned up from the wilds of Rhodesia.

SHOCKS. If I should die to-night, And you should come to my cold corpse

and say, Weeping and heartsick o'er my lifeless clay— If I should die to-niglit, And you should come in deepest grief

and woe— And say: "Here's that ten dollars that I owe." I might rise in my large white cravat And say: "What's that?" If I should die to-night, And you should come to my cold corpse

and kneel, Clasping my bier, to show the grief you feel; I say, if I should die to-night, And you should come to me and there and then Just even hint about paying me that ten, I might rise the while,But I'd drop dead again. A PANACEA. For rlieumatisinTake a bee Then pet it; The sting is recommended, and You bet it Will cither cure the pain, or you'll Forget it. —Philadelphia Ledger,

Tlie tree frogs of South America sing a3 musically as birds.