In a recent conversation with friends, the question arose, what was the first off-colour joke we ever remember having been told? When I remembered the one a dear little innocent girl at my school had told me, it provoked hearty laughter; so here it is — in, as nearly as I can recall over 69 years, her very words:

"This lady goes into a pet shop and sez 'I want a parrot that talks'. The pet shop man sez 'This parrot talks, madam. Ten shillings.' So the lady gives him ten shillings and goes off. Next day she comes back and sez 'That parrot you sold me yesterday doesn't talk.' The pet shop man sez 'Go back home and stick a fork up the parrot's bum.' So the lady goes home and sticks a fork up the parrot's bum, and the parrot sez 'Who's that sticking a fork up my bum?'"