"I have heard the answer--we could not guess it, as it consists of puns," replied Mary. "Those who make you _steel_ pens, and then say they do _write_." "Here's another. Why is the clock the most humble of all things?" "Because it covers its face with its hands, and is continually running itself down." "When is it in a passion?" "When it is ready to strike one." "Pray, what can be the difference between Joan of Arc and Noah's ark?" "One was made of gopher-wood--the other was Maid of Orleans." "Two persons met in the street, and one of them said, 'I am _your_ son, but you are not _my_ father.' How could that be?" "It could not be, Charlie!--how could it?" said Lewis. "It might be, if the person happened to be his mother," answered Mary, with a laugh. "It is that, of course--how silly we all are!" "My first is on the table, and under the table; my second is a kind of grain; my third and fourth combined, form what the most romantic people cannot well dispense with; and my whole is one of the United States." "Let us see--California? no. Massachusetts will not do, nor Connecticut. Oh, I have it: it is _Matrimony_--not always a united state, however!" "You think not, Ellen? Then here is a piece of advice for you, and to make it more emphatic and intelligible, I will write it upon a card." Be [A] meddling man family wife. [Illustration: Word puzzle] "I have it! _eureka_!" cried Tom Bolton. "Be above meddling in a family between man and wife." "Why are pens, ink, and paper like the fixed stars?" "They are stationary." "A gentleman visited a prisoner; and, pointing to him, said to the bystanders, "'Brothers and sisters have I none; But this man's father was my father's son.' What relationship was there between them?" "A slight one--only that of father and son," answered Cornelia. "What glorious fun we have had this week!" cried George. "It will be hard work to go back again to _hic, haec, hoc_--I wish Christmas holidays could come once a week!"