"Really," sighed the Blank-book. "Why, a man came into the store where I was for sale once, and said he wanted a Blank-book, and the clerk asked him what for--meaning, of course, did he want an account-book, a diary, or a copy-book. The man answered, 'To wash windows with, of course,' and everybody laughed but me. I simply couldn't see the point. Can you?" "Why, certainly," said Jimmieboy, a broad smile coming over his lips. "It was very funny. The point was that people don't wash windows with Blank-books." "What's funny about that?" asked the Blank-book. "It would be a great deal funnier if people did wash windows with a Blank-book. He might have said 'to go coasting on,' or 'to sweeten my coffee with,' or 'to send out to the heathen,' and it would have been just as funny." "I guess that's true," said Jimmieboy. "But it was funny just the same." "No doubt," returned the Blank-book; "but it seems to me what's funny depends on the other fellow. You might get off a splendid joke, and if he hadn't his joke spectacles on he'd think it was nonsense." "Oh no," said Jimmieboy. "If he hadn't his joke spectacles on he wouldn't think it was nonsense. Jokes are nonsense." "But you said a moment ago the fun of the Blank-book joke was that you couldn't wash windows with one. That's a fact, so how could it be nonsense?" "I never thought of it in that way," said Jimmieboy. "Ah!" ejaculated the Blank-book. "Now that is really funny, because I don't see how you could think of it in any other way." "I don't see anything funny about that," began Jimmieboy. "Oh dear!" sighed the Blank-book. "We never shall agree, except that I am willing to believe that you know more about nonsense than I do. Perhaps you can explain this poem to me. I dreamt my poet wrote this on my twelfth page. It was called 'A Plane Tale:' "'I used to be so surly, that All men avoided me; But now I am a diplomat, Of wondrous suavity. "'I met a carpenter one night, Who wore a dotted vest; And when I asked if that was right, He told me to go West. "'I seized his saw and brandished it, As fiercely as I could, And told him, with much show of wit, I thought he was no good. "'At that he looked me in the face, And said my tone was gruff; My manner lacked a needed grace, In every way was rough. "'He seized and laid me on a plank, He gave a little cough; And then, although my spirits sank, _He planed me wholly off_! "'And ever since that painful night, When he so treated me, I've been as polished, smooth a wight, As any one can be.'" "There isn't much sense in that," said Jimmieboy. "Well, now, I think there is," said the Blank-book. "There's a moral to that. Two of 'em. One's mind your own business. If the carpenter wanted to wear a dotted vest it was nobody's affair. The other moral is, a little plane speaking goes a great way." "Oh, what a joke!" cried Jimmieboy.