ONE morning a pompous little man called upon Sydney Smith, saying that, being about to compile a history of distinguished families in Somersetshire, he had called to obtain the Smith _arms_. "I regret, sir," said the reverend wit, "not to be able to contribute to so valuable a work; but _the Smiths_ never had any _arms_, and have invariably sealed their letters with their _thumbs_." MDCXXXII.--UNCIVIL WARNING. A CELEBRATED professor, dining in company with a gaudy, discordant, and silly chatterer, was asked to help her to the usual concomitant of boiled fowl. As he did so, he abstractedly murmured, "Parsley,--_fatal to parrots_." MDCXXXIII.--AN INEVITABLE MISFORTUNE. WHEN Boswell was first introduced to Dr. Johnson, he apologized to him for being a Scotchman. "I find," said he, "that I am come to London at a bad time, when great popular prejudice has gone forth against us North Britons; but when I am talking to you, I am talking to a large and liberal mind, and you know that I cannot _help coming from Scotland_."--"Sir," replied the doctor, archly, "_no more_ can the rest of your countrymen." MDCXXXIV.--DONE FOR. TWO gentlemen were lately examining the breast of a plough on a stall in a market-place. "I'll bet you a crown," said one, "you don't know what it's for."--"Done," said the other. "_It is for sale_." The bet was paid. MDCXXXV.--A PROBLEM FOR TOTAL ABSTAINERS. THOMAS HOOD says: "Puny draughts can hardly be called drinking. _Pints_ cannot be deemed _pot_ations." MDCXXXVI.--THE DOG TAX. BROWN drops in. Brown is said to be the toady of Jones. When Jones has the influenza, Brown dutifully catches cold in the head. Douglas Jerrold remarked to Brown, "Have you heard the rumor that's flying about town?"--"No."--"Well, they say that Jones _pays the dog-tax for you_." MDCXXXVII.--A PUN WITH AN IRISH ACCENT. HOOD described a good church minister as "Piety _parsonified_." MDCXXXVIII.--A NEW WAY WITH ATTORNEYS. ONE day a simple farmer, who had just buried a rich relation, an attorney, was complaining of the great expense of a funeral cavalcade in the country. "Why, do you _bury_ your attorneys here?" asked Foote. "Yes, to be sure we do: how else?"--"O, we never do that in London."--"No?" said the other, much surprised; "how do you manage, then?"--"Why, when the patient happens to die, we lay him out in a room over night by himself, lock the door, throw open the window, and in the morning he is gone."--"Indeed!" exclaimed the farmer, with amazement; "what becomes of him?"--"Why, that we cannot exactly tell; all we know is, there's _a strong smell of brimstone in the room the next morning_." MDCXXXIX.--THE DOUBT EXPLAINED. A MAN with a very short nose was continually ridiculing another, whose nose was remarkably long. The latter said to him one day, "You are always making observations upon _my nose_; perhaps you think it was made at the _expense_ of yours."