CORNERING THE BOYS.
Reading edition
ONLY a few days before they moved the capital, a worthy lady of Peoria one morning detected her two sons laughing immoderately. Suspecting that she was the cause of their disrespectful mirth, the good woman involuntarily loosened her slipper and called up the young culprits.
“Thomas, what made you laugh?”
“Nobody made me laugh; I laughed on purpose.”
“None of your impudence, sir. John, why were you laughing at the door just now?”
John (eagerly)—“Wasn’t laughing at the door, I was laughing at Tom.”
Tom—“And I was laughing at John.”
The matron assumed a dignified attitude. “Now, my boys, what were you both laughing at?”
Boys (in a triumphant shout)—“We were both laughing at once!”
The good lady summoned all her energies for a final effort, and resolved to corner the boys by a settling question.
“Now, then, I want you to tell me, Tom, what made John laugh and you laugh?”
Tom—“John didn’t laugh a new laugh; it was the same old laugh!”
Neither of the boys got whipped, the slipper slid back to its accustomed place, and to this day nobody knows what those boys laughed at.
SELLING THE HEIRLOOM.
