SPEAKING ABOUT appropriate and timely presents, I wish to tell folks how Harry and his sister Nelly sprang a brilliant surprise upon their grandfather. It was his 93d birthday, and the children presented him with an elegant “sleepy pillow,” as they termed it, for his sofa. He was an old navy officer, so they had to make him happy by introducing the name of Dewey in the middle of it, but in accordance with their own plan of working in a secret cryptogram which would conceal an appropriate motto, they raked their young brains to find a sentiment which would be suitable for the occasion.
Of course, mistakes are liable to happen in the best regulated families, especially when the moving spirits are so young, and it would be misleading if I should intimate that the motto was as appropriate as it might have been; nevertheless, if our puzzlists exercise their brains over this problem as much as Harry and his sister did, they will deserve prizes if they succeed in unraveling it. Commence at the G on the upper left-hand corner, and move in any direction to adjacent squares, so as to spell out a Continuous sequence of the twenty-four letters, which reveals the intended motto.
The Dewey Pillow puzzle reads: Good people always die young.
2.
If from a reasonable quantity of my second, I frequently but judiciously take my first, it will materially contribute to my whole? Support.
When do we see cannibalism? When a rash man eats a rasher, or when the cook fries a little Indian meal for you.
Why does a poor tailor spoil your disposition? He gives you bad habits.
Why are tottering houses like false reports? They are stories without any foundations.
When is a skein of thread like the root of an oak? When it is full of knots.
Who has a mouth but never speaks, and a bed but never sleeps in it? Mrs. Sippi.
Why are children like castles in the air? Their existence is only in fancy.
What is higher and handsomer when the head is off? A pillow.
Why is a proud girl like a music box? She is full of airs.
Why is a short negro almost white? Because he is not a tall black.
Why are discontented people easily satisfied? Because nothing satisfies them.
Why are ripe potatoes in the ground like thieves? They should be taken up.
Why is a man going to town like one prepared to parry a blow? He is going to ward it.
Why is swearing like an old patched coat? It's a darned bad habit.
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