Belt Auction

Please help me understand this?

I've asked this question elsewhere but to unsatisfactory answers, I will try it in this section before I bring it to my friend whose a linguist, or rather just bury it. It's driving me insane! I've found a very strange little book, dated from 1898. On the inside there is a penciled in inscription that is driving me insane, I have no clue what it means. "If this book should happen to roam, Box it's ears and send it home". Theres also many signatures in it, but each of them from different years. It's very strange 14 minutes ago - 4 days left to answer. Additional Details No, I appreciate all of your answers but they all aren't using it in it's proper context. I could very well be one sided about this but it's very, very important that the inscription is in 1898, more particularily 1898 in England. This is Victorian England, and they speak a bit differently than we. "Box it's ears" means something horrible. It's a bad context, not a positive one. To box one's ears is to hit both sides of their head until they are deaf, usually permanently. (It's what happened to Beethoven). It almost sounds like an omen of sorts. 3 minutes ago Furthermore it uses "Should happen" rather than "When this book happens to roam" or "Allow this book to roam". Should happen implies that it shouldn't in the first place. There seems to be one common factor between all of these signatures, there's something about it that's driving me insane! I don't understand it. It means something and something important, there's a basic cryptic code in the back but the pages required to finish it were ripped out. Either way I think I will just bury this book! I have enough collectibles where I don't need this one to haunt me. Of course only something with as silly a name as 'Yahoo' would turn this into a movie. Guatalupe (I know that's not your real name but I'm not bothering remembering it) I didn't say "I'm a linguist", I do not major in Language, so your (Or rather you're) sarcastic dissection of my sentence was not very funny. If I said "I'm a linguist", than it would have been very funny. Further more by saying "You definitely need a friend who's a linguist." Your implying that I'm lying over the fact that I made an almost noticeable mistake simply because I know someone who spent years through school to study language and cannot myself properly correct all of my own sentences. Your statement was very impractical. Either you want me to send my friend an email before I ever post something to the internet or simply because I know him I should know everything he knows. That would eliminate the purpose of conversation and learning if as soon as we knew someone we knew everything they knew. I go to school for Theology among many other things (Including language, but not English, Latin and Greek). Your comment was little more than petty.

Public Comments

1. Send it to me!!!! Sounds like an interesting quest and great movie plot!!!!!!!
2. It means, "please return this book". Boxing ears does not mean "until deaf". A single rap is "boxing" and can be as gentle as you want.
3. First, it should be 'my friend who's a linguist.' 'Who's' is short for 'who is.' 'Whose' is the possessive of 'who.' Second, it should be 'its ears.' 'Its' is the possessive of 'it.' 'It's' is short for 'it is.' You definitely need a friend who's a linguist. To box someone's ears is simply to hit them in the ears. The term sometimes appears in 19th-century English literature. It seems to have been a fairly common means of punishing children in that era. All the inscription you refer to means is 'If you find this book, return it to me.' The writer is trying to be funny. The 'it' in 'box its ears' is the book. The writer is pretending that the book naughtily ran away and should be punished. If this doesn't seem very funny to you, you're not the only one.