things, asked what an average was. Several boys pleaded ignorance, but one at last replied, "It is what a hen lays on." This answer puzzled the bishop not a little; but the boy persisted in it, stating that he had read it in his little book of facts. He was then told to bring the little book, and, on doing so, he pointed triumphantly to a paragraph commencing,

   "The domestic hen lays

    on an average

   fifty eggs each year."

   If English is "wrote" as she is often "spoke" by the ignorant and careless, she would bear little resemblance to the original Queen's English. A listener wrote out a short conversation heard the other day between two pupils of a high-school, and here is the phonetic result:

    "Warejergo lasnight?"

    "Hadder skate."

    "Jerfind th'ice hard'n'good?"

    "Yes, hard'nough."

    "Jer goerlone?"

    "No; Bill'n Joe wenterlong."

    "Howlate jerstay?"

    "Pastate."

    "Lemmeknow wenyergoagin, woncher? I wantergo'n'show yer howterskate."

    "H'm, ficoodn't skate better'n you I'd sell-out'n'quit."

    "Well, we'll tryeranc'n'seefyercan."

   Here, as they took different streets, their conversation ceased.

   A writer in the "School-boy Magazine" has gathered together the following dictionary words as defined by certain small people:

   The following specimens from scholars' examinations in making sentences to illustrate the definitions of words, found in their small dictionaries, will have a familiar sound to some of our readers:

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