Page:Everybody's Book of English wit and humour (1880).djvu/21



"All the world," said an old Quaker to his wife, "is queer, except thee and me—and thee is a little queer."

Coleridge was acknowledged to be a bad rider. One day, riding through a street, he was accosted by a would-be wit: "I say, do you know what happened to Baalam?"

Came the answer sharp and quick: "The same as happened to me. An ass spoke to him!"

Theodore Hook, when dining with the author of a work called "Three Words to the Drunkard," was asked to review it. "Oh, my dear fellow, that I have already done in three words—pass the bottle."