ertain members of the fielding side. As for the watchers, they never
fail to groan.

Still, as I have said, it is now recognised that the craving for tea
is as much a part of the present-day game as the six-ball over, and
the time has passed for censuring it. But something can be done to
regulate it; and I have based my efforts towards a solution on the
argument that, if a cricketer is not called in from the game to read
his telegram, but (as we have all seen so often) the telegram is
taken out to him, surely the precious fluid that he so passionately
desiderates can be taken out to him too. At present, therefore, all
my thoughts are turned upon the construction of some kind of wheeled
waggon, such as is in use at a well-known restaurant in the Strand, on
which fifteen cups (two for the umpires) and an urn and sugar and milk
can be conveyed, with the concomitant bread-and-butter, or shrimps or
meringues, or whatever is eaten with the tea, on a lower shelf. This
could be pushed on to the ground at 4.15 and pushed back again at
4.20 without any serious injury to the match. That is my idea at the
moment; but I am a poor mechanic and should be glad if some properly
qualified person--someone with a HEATH ROBINSON mind--would take the
work over.

E.V.L.

* * * * *

IN THE MOVEMENT.

How I came to be able to understand the language of trees is a secret.
But I do understand it. It is my peculiar privilege to overhear all
kinds of whispered conversation--green speech in green shades--as I
take my rest underneath the boughs on a country walk. Some day I shall
set down fully the result of these leaves-droppings, but at the moment
I want to tell only of what I heard some blackberry bushes saying last
week.

"From what I hear," said the first bush, "the cost of everything's
going up by leaps and bounds."

"How is that?" asked one of its neighbours.

"It's due, I understand," the first bush replied, "partly to scarcity
of labour and partly to profiteering."

"I don't see why we shouldn't participate," said another bush. "Here
we are, covered with fruit, and it's all just as free as ever it was.
That's absurd, after a big war. The duty of a war is to make things
dearer and remove freedom."

"Of course," said the others.

"'Your blackberries will cost you more'--that should be our motto,"
said the first bush. "We must be up to date."

* * * * *

A few da