You ask, dear reader, “are humorists happy?” and the answer is “certainly not;” for, if a humorist were happy he would be too happy to be a humorist. Happy people are people who are so happy being happy that they fear to think; but a humorist has to think up ways and means of making people page 10 think they are laughing at someone else while in reality they are laughing at themselves. Believe us, dear reader, jesting is a serious matter, and the jester has a hard row to ho-ho. But humanity without humour would be as soggy as a sock full of damp sawdust, or a sea-pie with a leak in the lazaret. As the “sackee” said, “every billet finds its ‘bullet,’” and haply every happening has its humour. There is even drollery in dentistry, jest in geometry, a laugh in Love, some mirth in dearth, and a titter in toothache. Often the humour is difficult to detect at the time, but the person who can reckon out his attitude and wrongitude with the theodolite of thought must always admit that the joke is on him.