The sole purpose of this book is to give you, dear reader, something to read that will make you laugh, or at least smile. We hope that the selections here are different enough from the ones you have found in most superficially similar anthologies that you will find many surprises, and perhaps strike up friendships with some worthy writers whose names you have never heard before. An Ojibwe Myth Benjamin Franklin Francis Hopkinson Hugh Henry Brackenridge Salmagundi Washington Irving James K. Paulding Major Jack Downing James Fenimore Cooper Fanny Fern James Russell Lowell Oliver Wendell Holmes John Phoenix Orpheus C. Kerr Artemus Ward Abraham Lincoln Josh Billings Mark Twain Julia A. Moore Max Adeler Will W. Clark Bill Nye Eugene Field Ben King Robert J. Burdette George Ade Billy Baxter Wallace Irwin Franklin Pierce Adams Gelett Burgess Carolyn Wells Elbert Hubbard Bert Leston Taylor Heywood Broun Dorothy Parker Robert Benchley Ring Lardner