ne_ to lean on. It was a chilly morning and, as I
was looking down and trying to think of something to say, I gave a
sudden shriek, for on his dear heroic wrists I recognised--_My Mitts_!
And when he heard I'd made them he was just as _confondu_ as I was.
'They were in a bale of comfies sent to my company,' he said, 'and I had
the ladling out of them to the men. But when I came to these mitts, with
the sweet little message pinned to them, I simply couldn't part with
them! And to think _you_ made them--and wrote the little message! It
makes one believe in all those psychic what-d'-you-call-'ems.'

"I felt a crisis was coming and so I said hurriedly, 'Oh, I only wish
they were worthier of--of--brave hands and wrists. I'm a wretched
knitter--they're full of mistakes--I kept forgetting to keep to the
pattern--it ought to have been, "_knit_ two together and _make_
one"--but of course you don't understand knitting.' 'I understand it
right enough if _that's_ all there is to it,' he said. "Knit two
together and make one." Monica--no, you mustn't run away----' And
that's all you're going to be told, Blanche, except that the powers that
be have given their consent and I'm too happy for words!"

_Et voila mon petit roman de guerre et de tricotage._

My poor Josiah is still at the uttermost edge of beyond. He began to
come home, and the boat was chased and ran to an island for shelter, and
then the island was taken by one of our enemies and he was a prisoner.
Then it was retaken by one of the Allies and he was free again. Since
then more things have happened and he's been a prisoner again, and free
again. And now he's lost count, and says he doesn't know _what_ he is or
_who's_ got the island!

Ever thine,

BLANCHE.

* * * * *

Illustration: _Cyclist._ "MANY RECRUITS GONE FROM THIS VILLAGE?"

_Shopkeeper._ "NO, SIR."

_Cyclist._ "OH, WHY'S THAT?"

_Shopkeeper._ "WELL, SIR, AFTER GOING CAREFULLY INTO THE MATTER, WE, IN
THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD, DECIDED TO REMAIN ABSOLUTELY NEUTRAL."

* * * * *

FATHER WILHELM.

"You are bold, Father WILHELM," the young man said;
"Your moustache, too, is fiercer than mine;
But I'm tempted to ask by the size of your head,
Do you really suppose you're divine?"

"In my youth," said his father, "you probably know
That I held the most orthodox views;
But since I have hypnotized HARNACK and CO.
I simply beli