yond question, for the campaign she has just
inaugurated is unlikely to yield them.

"You must," she said to me yesterday, "give me something for my new
scheme."

"I hope I shall have enough strength of mind not to; but what is it?"

"You have noticed in what a dreadful state so many of the shop windows
in London now are?" she asked.

"The iniquitous prices of the goods?"

"Oh, no; I didn't mean that. I mean the dropped letters. Where they have
glass letters stuck on, you know, and some have gone. Surely you must
have noticed?"

"Yes, of course," I replied; "but I thought the shop-keepers were too
lazy or careless to bother. The War has increased carelessness, you
know."

"No, it isn't that," she said. "The poor fellows are so understaffed and
overworked that they can't find time. My idea is to raise a fund so
that it can be done for them. My heart aches. Only this morning I saw a
barber's with ASH AND RUSH UP on it; and a confectioner's"--she referred
to her notebook--"with ICE REAMS, and an undertaker's with PINKING ONE
ERE."

"What is pinking?" I asked. "I always wanted to know."

"And," she continued, again consulting her book, "a tobacconist's with
BEST OLDEN VIRGIN , and a dentist's with PA LESS EXTRACTION. Something
really must be done. Don't you agree?"

I murmured that there were other abuses that were possibly more in need
of immediate redress, but Mrs. Delta again turned to her book.

"And a dairyman with FAMILIES UP LIE , and a stationer's with LUE LACK
INK. Isn't it distressing?--and so bad for growing children to see so
much slovenliness. And what can foreigners think of us? The Americans,
for instance, who are always so spick and span, and--"

The means of rescue came to me in the shape, of a vast monster on
wheels, bright with yellow and scarlet, thundering over the road.
"That's my bus," I said, and ran.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Father (to troublesome small boy_). "NOW LOOK HERE,
TONY. I SHAN'T WARN YOU AGAIN. THE VERY _NEXT_ TIME YOU MISBEHAVE YOU
GO _STRAIGHT_ UPSTAIRS TO BED."

_Small Sister_. "AND THAT'S _THAT_. ISN'T IT, DADDY?"]

* * * * *

THOSE DRESSES.

_(Being a Midsummer Night's Dream, or thereabouts.)_

More gay than day and plumier
Than Birds of Paradise,
It was no Court Costumier
That made them look so nice;
No milliners nor drapers
On mortal business terms
Of thos