138. Everyone knows that in a race on a circular track the competitor who has the “inside” running has the least ground to cover, hence the great desire of cyclists, jockeys, &c., to “hug the fence.” Now a gentleman, six feet high, starts walking round the Earth on the equator; his feet, therefore, have the inside running. Find out how much further his head travels than his feet in performing this wonderful journey? taking the circumference of the globe at the equator to be 25,000 miles. [Illustration] PRECOCIOUS JUVENILE--“Mamma, it isn’t good grammar to say ‘after I,’ is it?” HIS MOTHER--“No, Georgie.” PRECOCIOUS JUVENILE--“Well, the letter J comes after I. Which is wrong--the grammar or the alphabet?” 139. There is an island in the form of a semi-circle; two persons start from a point in the diameter; one walks along the diameter, and the other at right angles to it; the former reaches the extremity of the diameter after walking 4 miles, and the latter the boundary of the island after walking 8 miles. Find the area of the island. 140. There is a certain number consisting of three figures which is equal to 36 times the sum of its digits, and 7 times the left-hand digit plus 9, equal to 5 times the sum of the remaining digits, and 8 times the second digit minus 9 is equal to the sum of the first and third. What is the number? 141. A bottle and cork costs 2½d.; the bottle costs 2d. more than the cork. What is the price of each? A Cure for Big Words. Here is a good story of how a father cured his son of verbal grandiloquence. The boy wrote from college, using such large words that the father replied with the following letter:--“In promulgating your esoteric cogitations, or articulating superficial sentimentalities, and philosophical or pscyhological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversation possess a clarified conciseness, compacted comprehensibleness, coalescent consistency, and a concatenated cogency. Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement, and asinine affectations. Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiations have intelligibility, without rhodomontade or thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabical profundity, pompous prolixity, and ventriloquial vapidity. Shun double entendre and prurient jocosity, whether obscure or apparent. In other words, _speak truthfully, naturally, clearly, purely, but do not use big words_.” 142. With a pair each of four different weights, 1 lb. up to 170 lbs. can be weighed. What are the weights? 143. A man going “on the spree” spends on the first day 10s. 5d., the second 18s., the third £1 8s. 7d., the fourth £2 2s. 8d., and so on at that rate of increase until he has spent all he had--£183 6s. 8d. How many days was he on the spree? 144. Divide one shilling into two parts, so that one will be 2½d. more than the other. COMPLIMENTARY, VERY! EDITOR--“Did you see the notice I gave you yesterday?”