---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 7
number: 10
published: 1904-08
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "In Lighter Mood," *Improvement Era* 7, no. 10 (August 1904): 799.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0710unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0710unse
start_page: 799
end_page: 799
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-08)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0710unse
  publication_year: 1904
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1904, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# In Lighter Mood

<!-- page:799 -->

IN    LIGHTER MOOD.

       Professor Syle, of the University of California,      tells this story of
himself:
    At the beginning of the last session, while calling the roll of the
new students; he came to the name, Miss Sara Greene.     He stopped to
express disapproval of the final "e" in her name, by asking "G-r-e-e-n-e,
—does that      spell Green or Greenie?"     Miss Greene responded promptly:
"S-y-l-e; does that spell Syle or Silly?"      Success.

       The judge of one of the United States Circuit Courts, has a five-
year-old niece, of whom he is very proud.         A few days ago, she came to
him, and said, with a very serious air: "Uncle, there is a question about
law I want to ask you."         "Well, dear, what is it?" patiently inquired the
judge.     "Uncle, if a man had a peacock, and it went into another man's
yard, and laid an egg, who would the egg belong to?"          The judge smiled
indulgently, and replied:       "Why, the egg would belong to the man who
owned the peacock; but he could be prosecuted for trespassing, if he
went on the other's property, to get it." The child seemed very much
interested in the explanation, and then observed, innocently: "Uncle, did
it   ever occur to you, that a peacock couldn't lay an egg?"           The   Law
Review.

     At the end of a day's journey a traveler stopped for a night at a
small rancher's sback in Montana.   As he sat on the door-step with his
host, a troop of children began  playing  about them. The New York
Times reports this conversation:
       "These children all yours?" inquired the traveler.
       "Yep."
       "How many?"
       "Let's see," and the rancher hesitatingly began counting them up
on his fingers.
       Pretty soon a drove of hogs came into view.
       "Yours?" asked the traveler.
       "Yep."
       "How many?"
       "Five hundred and sixty-three," was the instant response.— Youth's
Companion.