A Joke

              A little girl and her mother were out shopping one afternoon when they ran across one of the mother’s old school friends. “How ugly you are!” the little girl blurted out when she was introduced to the woman.

              Horrified, her mother scolded her by saying, “That’s a terrible thing to say to someone!”

              “It was just meant as a joke,” the little girl said lamely.

              Without thinking about what she was really saying, her mother replied, “Well, the joke would have been much better if you’d said to Mrs. Jones, ‘How pretty you are!’”