_Master Joe_ (_airily_). As you please, Sir. Things which are equal to
the same thing are equal to one another, you know.

_Mrs. S._ (_aside_). Smart boy, very! I fancy I should have more
confidence in him if he were a little _less_ so.

_Doctor T._ (_gravely_). You see, JOSEPH, there are some things in
your earlier school career which your well-wishers would fain--forget.
You were rather what is called, I think, "a young Radical" once, not
to say "a bit of a pickle." You seemed not altogether out of sympathy
with such revolutionary proceedings as "revolts" and "barring-outs,"
and even talked once, if I remember rightly, of putting the Principals
"to ransom"--doctrines better worthy of a Calabrian brigand than of a
public school-boy. But let bygones _be_ bygones. Now that you are in
a position of responsibility and--respectability, you will, of course,
abandon all such revolutionary rubbish, and think not of yourself, but
others; consider less the wild wishes of your inferiors than the wise
commands of your betters.

_Master Joe_ (_solemnly_). Oh, of _course_, Sir! And now, if you, _Dr.
Poloni_--ahem!--Dr. T., and _Mrs. Pip_--I mean Mrs. S., have _quite_
finished your wig--I should say wise counsellings, I think I'll--go
out and play! [_Does so._

* * * * *

DYNAMITICAL ARGUMENTS.--The Apostles of "the Gospel of Dynamite"
would, if they could, speedily convert a whole town--into a ruin.