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Show THE SHORTEST MONTH. In the old days when the Uoinan rulers had nothing else to worry about, they did something to the calendar cal-endar And February, it appears, was a vic tim originalh this perfectly good month had SO day! in leap years and 29 In other ers February is from the Latin, meaning "to purify." It was the custom of the Romans to celebrate the festival or purification In IVbru-: ary. JullUh Caesar named Jul) in his own honor he saw to it there were 31 days in It . Then along came Augustus, Au-gustus, and a month was named for bun, also. But August had only days So Augustus locketl around and picked on February, which had no one particularly to defend It. He Just took a day off February .nml added II to his own pet month. That's why February ordinarily has but 28 days, and why August has 31. In keeping with tho dignity of its im-; pertoui namesake |