THE SAYINGS OF CHILDREN
(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPETAToa."1 Sin,—The child's comment on "the gentleman in the sailor- hat" painted on a church window, as recorded by your correspondent in the Spectator of September 27th, reminds me of a story told me by a lady whose father was a vicar in the Oxford diocese under Bishop Mackarness. The Bishop, who was dining at the vicarage, was taken into his host's dressing-room, where my informant's little brother was supposed to be asleep. The child, however, whose mind bad been agitated by the prospect of the episcopal visit, was lying awake ; and on hearing the august footsteps enter the room, jumped up in his cot, stared at the great man, and called out : "Are you one of God's holy Apostles?" One would like to have heard the Bishop's version of the time- honoured, and, in one form or 'another, often-repeated, Hand equidem tali me dignor honore. Here may be inserted another youthful mistake, which resembles the last only in being at once singular and authentic. An examinee, being asked what was meant by the Salk Law, answered : "The Salle Law provides that no one whose mother was a woman may ascend the throne." This Malapropist must have been cousin-german to the small boy whom, when he was kept indoors by a cold, his mother offered to amuse by playing at ball with him. "You can never catch," grumbled the urchin. "That's the worst of having a woman for one's mother."—I
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