library, was accosted by a primly dressed middle-aged woman who said
that she had finished reading the last of Laura Jean Libby's writings,
and that she should like something just as good.

The young assistant, unable for the moment to think of Laura Jean
Libby's equal, hastily scanned the shelf on which she was working and,
choosing a book, offered it to the applicant, saying, "Perhaps you
would like this, 'A Kentucky Cardinal.'"

"No," was the reply, "I don't care for theological works."

"But," explained the kindly assistant, with needless enthusiasm, "this
cardinal was a bird!"

"That would not recommend him to me," said the woman, as she moved
away in search of a librarian who should be a better judge of
character as well as of Laura Jean Libby's peers.


Books are the legacies that genius leaves to mankind, to be delivered
down from generation to generation, as presents to the posterity of
those that are yet unborn.--_Addison_.


"Are you interested in a loose-leaf encyclopedia?"

"Nope, got one."

"Indeed! Whose?"