The younger son in a certain family in England disgraced his name and family by outrageous conduct. The family told him that if he would leave the country, he would receive a check each quarter that would permit him to live in some comfort, but that he would be refused all income if he remained in England. He emigrated to Canada and received his check every three months. He spent it within a few days, and the rest of the time he lived the precarious existence of a semi-bum.
Several years ago, musicians noted that errand boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work. It was talked about and someone suggested that it was because the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune. Something had gone wrong with the chimes and they were discordant. The boys did not know there was anything wrong with the peals, and quite unconsciously they had copied them.
In a certain mountain village about a hundred miles from Paris, a group of American soldiers, consisting of a lieutenant and about forty men, guarded an ammunition dump. The lieutenant received permission to go on leave for two weeks, and he left the group in charge of the master sergeant.
Fabre, the greatest naturalist who ever lived, began the main part of his work at sixty; he was able to give all his time to it when he was seventy; and he was discovered by fame at the age of ninety. He had done all of his work without a laboratory; all of his insects had been raised in old flower pots and sardine cans. He always referred to his two best instruments as "time" and "patience."
While Jean Francois Raffaeli, the French art critic was walking near the village of Barbizon he saw the renowned Jean Baptiste Corot painting a meadow, with woods in the background. Raffaeli saw that Corot had put in a small lake, although actually there was no lake in the field before him. "But, Monsieur Corot!" he exclaimed, "is it permissible to paint a pond where there is no pond?" Corot retorted, "Young man, it is eleven o'clock. I have been here in the field since six this morning. I became very thirsty, so I put water in the picture to refresh myself."
