ne talking of Ypres and the Somme she'd begin
about Rouen and Etaples."

I laughed, but without mirth, for I did not really think this at all
funny. And after all I might have said just the same about Ernest, if
only I'd thought of it first.

* * * * *

"CHAR-A"-VARIA.

[_The Manchester Daily Dispatch_ gives a most distressing
account of the bibulous hooliganism which is becoming more
rampant week by week among char-a-bancs trippers.]

The patrons of the charabang
Employ the most outrageous slang
And talk with an appalling twang.
Their manners ape the wild orang;
They do not care a single hang
For sober folk on foot who gang,
But as they roll, with jolt and clang,
For parasang on parasang,
They cause a vulgar _Sturm und Drang_.
They never heard of Andrew Lang,
Or even Mr. William Strang;
They are, I say it with a pang,
A most intolerable gang;
In fact I wish them at Penang
Or on the banks of Yang-tse-Kiang--
_Some_ folk who use the charabang.

* * * * *

"Wanted, a good, clean General, for private."--_Provincial
Paper_.

Discipline is going to the dogs.

* * * * *

POINTS OF VIEW.

The manager had seen to it that the party of young men, being very
obviously rich, at any rate for this night, had some of the best
attendance in the restaurant. Several waiters had been told off
specially to look after them, the least and busiest of whom was little
more than a boy--a slender pale boy, who was working very hard to give
satisfaction. The cynic might think--and say, for cynics always say what
they think--that this zeal was the result of his youth; but the cynic
for once would be only partly right. The zeal also had sartorial
springs, this eventful day being the first on which the boy had been
promoted to full waiter-hood, and the first therefore on which he had
ever worn a suit of evening dress; which by dint of hard saving his
family had been able to obtain for him. Wearing a uniform of such
dignity and conscious that he was on the threshold of his career, he was
trying very hard to make good and hoping very fervently that he would
get through without any drops or splashes to impair the freshness of his
new and wonderful attire.

The party of young men, who had been at a very illustrious English
school together and now were either at a university or in the worl