WASTE
The automobile rushed down the road--huge, gigantic, sublime. Over the
fence hung the woman who works hard and long-her husband is at the cafe
and she has thirteen little ones. (An unlucky number.) Suddenly upon the
thirteenth came the auto, unseeing, slew him, and hummed on, unknowing.
The woman who works hard and long rushed forward with hands, hands made
rough by toil, upraised. She paused and stood inarticulate--a goddess,
a giantess. Then she hurled forth these words of derision, of despair:
"Mon Dieu! And I'd just washed him!"--_Literally translated from Le
Sport of Paris_.
A Boston physician tells of the case of a ten-year-old boy, who, by
reason of an attack of fever, became deaf. The physician could afford
the lad but little relief, so the boy applied himself to the task of
learning the deaf-and-dumb alphabet. The other members of his family,
too, acquired a working knowledge of the alphabet, in order that they
might converse with the unfortunate youngster.
During the course of the next few months, however, Tommy's hearing
suddenly returned to him, assisted no doubt by a slight operation
performed by the physician.
Every one was, of course, delighted, particularly the boy's mother, who
one day exclaimed:
"Oh, Tommy, isn't it delightful to talk to and hear us again?"
"Yes," assented Tommy, but with a degree of hesitation; "but here we've
all learned the sign language, and we can't find any more use for it!"