=The teacher of English.=—­Many teachers could, with profit to themselves and their schools, sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln, not only to learn English but also to imbibe his sense of humor.  Nothing is more pathetic than the efforts of a teacher who lacks a sense of humor to teach a bit of English that abounds in humor, by means of the textual notes.  The notes are bad enough, in all conscience, but the teacher’s lack of humor piles Ossa upon Pelion.  The solemnity that pervades such mechanical teaching would be farcical were it not so pathetic.  The teacher who cannot indulge in a hearty, honest, ringing laugh with her pupils in situations that are really humorous is certain to be laughed at by her pupils.  In her work, as in Lincoln’s, a sense of humor will often save the day.

=Mark Twain as philosopher.=—­Mark Twain will ever be accounted a very prince of humorists, and so he was.  But he was more than that.  Upon the current of his humor were carried precious cargoes of the philosophy of life.  His humor is often so subtle that the superficial reader fails to appreciate its fine quality and misses the philosophy altogether.  To extract the full meaning from his writing one must be able to read not only between the lines but also beneath the lines.  The subtle quality of his humor defies both analysis and explanation.  If it fails to tell its own story, so much the worse for the reader.  To such humor as his, explanation amounts to an impertinence.  People can either appreciate it or else they cannot, and there’s the end of the matter.

In the good time to come when the school teaches reading for the purpose of pleasure and not for examination purposes, we shall have Mark Twain as one of our authors; and it is to be hoped that we shall have editions devoid of notes.  The notes may serve to give the name of the editor a place on the title page, but the notes cannot add to the enjoyment of the author’s genial humor.  Mark Twain reigns supreme, and the editor does well to stand uncovered in his presence and to withhold his pen.

=A Twain story.=—­One of Mark Twain’s stories is said to be one of the most humorous stories extant.  The story relates how a soldier was rushing off the battlefield in retreat when a companion, whose leg was shattered, begged to be carried off the field.  The appeal met a willing response and soon the soldier was bearing his companion away on his shoulder, his head hanging down the soldier’s back.  Unknown to the soldier a cannon ball carried away the head of his companion.  Accosted by another soldier, he was asked why he was carrying a man whose head had been shot away.  He stoutly denied the allegation and, at length, dropped the headless body to prove the other’s hallucination.  Seeing that the man’s head was, in truth, gone, he exclaimed, “Why, the durn fool told me it was his leg.”

=Humor defies explanation.=—­The humor of this story is cumulative.  We may not parse it, we may not analyze it, we may not annotate it.  We can simply enjoy it.  And, if we cannot enjoy it, we may pray for a spiritual awakening, for such an endowment of the sense of humor as will enable us to enjoy, that we may no longer lead lives that are spiritually blind.  Bill Nye wrote: