“I have been much entertained during my wanderings through the country adjoining this town, in observing the singular habits and extreme sagacity of the kangaroos.  I have noticed several who carried in their fore paws a sort of umbrella, or fan, which they held so as to protect their head and shoulders from the violence of the sun.  One day I slipped a brace of large greyhounds at a female who carried one of these useful appendages, which she soon dropped and escaped:  it was formed of a large bough, over which some large leaves were spread, and fastened on simply by the shoots of the bough sticking into the leaf.”—­From a letter dated Hobart’s Town, February, 1829.

* * * * *

THE EARL OF MANSFIELD.

“When he was at Westminster School, Lady Kinnoul, in one of the vacations, invited him to her home, where, observing him with a pen in his hand, and seemingly thoughtful, she asked him if he was writing his theme, and what in plain English the theme was?  The school-boy’s smart answer rather surprised her Ladyship—­’What is that to you?’ She replied—­’How can you be so rude?  I asked you very civilly a plain question, and did not expect from a school-boy such a pert answer.’  The reply was, ’Indeed, my Lady, I can only answer once more, ’What is that to you?’ In reality the theme was—­Quid ad te pertinet!”—­From Holliday’s Life of the Earl of Mansfield.

* * * * *

“IN SPITE OF HIS TEETH.”

King John once demanded of a certain Jew ten thousand marks, on refusal of which, he ordered one of the Israelite’s teeth to be drawn every day till he should consent.  The Jew lost seven, and then paid the required sum.  Hence the phrase—­“In spite of his teeth.”

* * * * *

SWAN RIVER.

A gentleman who had just arrived in town met an Hibernian friend, and with anxious solicitude asked him “where the best bed was to be got?” “By my soul,” said the Emeralder, with a Kilmainham look, “I’m tould at the Swan River, where there’s nothing but down.”

W.C.R.R.

* * * * *

SIAMESE YOUTHS.

QUERY.—­Would not the law be the most profitable profession for the Siamese Youths?  They might plead pro and con, and take fees from plaintiff and defendant.  If raised to the Bench, they might receive the salary of one Judge, but act as two, thereby saving the nation some money in these hard times of cash payments, and please all parties, one summing up for plaintiff and the other for defendant.

P.T.W.

N.B.  They appear very good natured, although they huffed me twice at draughts.