'Well, Gibbs, we're old friends, and I'll tell you some day, but I
hardly feel up to it to-day.'

'Of course not, sir, of course not--it's only natural,' said Gibbs
tenderly, while the scissors once more took up the conversation.




THE DONKEY THAT LOVED A STAR


'That is how the donkey tells his love!' I said one day, with intent to
be funny, as the prolonged love-whoop of a distant donkey was heard in
the land.

'Don't be too ready to laugh at donkeys,' said my friend. 'For,' he
continued, 'even donkeys have their dreams. Perhaps, indeed, the most
beautiful dreams are dreamed by donkeys.'

'Indeed,' I said, 'and now that I think of it, I remember to have said
that most dreamers are donkeys, though I never expected so scientific a
corroboration of a fleeting jest.'

Now, my friend is an eminent scientist and poet in one, a serious
combination; and he took my remarks with seriousness at once scientific
and poetic.

'Yes,' he went on, 'that is where you clever people make a mistake. You