_Note._--Then I will humbly say that it must be a peculiarly elastic tongue. But in _either_ form the Proverb is meaningless.--H. B. J. * * * * * "What!--My Original dead?" cried the Statue. "Then I have lost all chance of ever becoming celebrated!" _Note._--This is an obvious mistranslation, since a Statue is only erected when the Original is already celebrated.--H. B. J. * * * * * "What is your favourite Perfume?" they asked the Hog, and he answered them, "Pigwash." "How vulgar!" exclaimed the Stoat. "_Mine_ is Patchouli!" But the Fox said that, in _his_ opinion, the less scent one used the better. _Note._--This merely records the well-known physiological fact that some persons are born without the olfactory sense. Emperor Vespasian was accustomed to declare (erroneously) that "pecunia non olet."--H. B. J. * * * * * "I wonder they allow such a cruel contrivance as that 'Catch 'em alive, oh!' paper!" said the Spider tearfully, as she sat in her web. _Note._--From this we learn that there may be a soft spot in the most unpromising quarters. Even Alexander the Great, who spent the blood of his troops like pocket money, is recorded to have wept at a review on suddenly reflecting that all his soldiers would probably be deceased in a hundred years. It is barely possible that Piljosh may have been a spectator of this incident.--H. B. J. * * * * * A certain Pheasant was pluming herself upon having become a member of the Anti-Sporting League. "Softly, friend!" said a wily old Cock, "for, should this League of thine succeed in its object, every man's hand would be against us both by day and night; whereas, at present, our lives are protected all night by vigilant keepers, and spared all day by our owner and his guests, who are incapable of shooting for nuts!" _Note._--This is a glaring _non sequitur_ and fallacy. I myself have never shot for nuts--but it does not necessarily follow that any pheasant would remain intact after I discharged my rifle-barrel!--H. B. J. * * * * * "It is not what we _look_ that signifieth," said the Scorpion virtuously, "it is what we _are_!" _Note._--True enough--but the moral would have been improved by attributing the saying to some insect of more innocuous character than a Scorpion. Perhaps this is so in the original Styptic, for, as I have said, I cannot repose implicit faith in my young friend's version.--H. B. J. * * * * * "I have composed the most pathetic poem in the world!" declared the Poet. "How can'st thou be sure of that," he was asked. "Because," he replied, "I recited it to the Crocodile, and she could not refrain from shedding tears!" * * * * *