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中学生の副読本「りこうな猿」（中学サイドリーダーシリーズ13 A clever monkey ユーモア傑作集　服部満二　評論社）の中から諧謔を弄したお話をひとつ紹介します。

Vice-President Jefferson

One day a man came into a hotel in a little country town.
His clothes were very dirty, and he looked very tired.
“Do you have a room for me here?”he asked.
The hotel man thought,“I don’t want this farmer to stay in my fine hotel.”
“I’m sorry,”he said.“We don’t have any more rooms. There’s a small hotel down the street.You can stay there.”The man went away.
A few minutes later,a man wearing fine clothes came into the hotel and said,“I’ve come to see Mr. Jefferson.”
“Mr.Jefferson?”
“Yes,Vice-President Jefferson.We planned to meet here.”The hotel man said,“A farmer in dirty clothes came here,but Mr. Jefferson didn’t,sir.”
“That man was Vice-President Jefferson.Where is he?”
said the man.
The hotel man was surprised to hear that.
He hurried to the other hotel to see Mr. Jefferson.
“Oh,Mr. Jefferson,” he said.“I’m very sorry.I thought you were a farmer.We have a nice room for you at our hotel.Will you please come back?”
“No,”said Mr. Jefferson.“If there’s no room for a farmer,there’s no room for the Vice-President,either.”

類似した経験をした人は多いのではないでしょうか。