A bumping noise from across the
hall and the cry of a child startles us. It proves to be Sergeant
Anderson's baby whose cradle has started afloat, and there is a general
rush to rescue Moses from his bulrushes. Everybody is in good humour.
As we calm the baby, South Dakota says "It reminds me of the Englishman
and his musical bath." We demand the story. "Well, a rich American took
a great liking to an Englishman he had been travelling with, and sent
him for a birthday present a Yankee invention to set up in his
country-house--a musical bath. As you turned on the spigot, the thing
played a tune while you were washing, and sort of relieved the tee-deum.
The two gents met next Christmas in New York, and the Yankee he sez,
'And how did you like the bath?' 'Oh, thank you very much, it was kind
of you indeed, but I found it a little irksome standing all the time,
you know.' 'Standing, what the blazes do you mean?' asked the Yankee.
'Well,' says the Britisher, 'the tune you furnished, you know, with the
bawth, was _God Save the King_, and as soon as it began, you know, I had
to stand, and it's rather tiresome taking your bawth standing, you
know.
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