on the leg side.  Forgotten were the rules, the windows and all else.  Kippy jumped out and, with every muscle he could bring into action, hit it straight through the plate-glass panel of the billiard-room door.  For five petrified seconds we gazed at the wreckage, and then the door opened and the Colonel walked briskly into the garden.  Anything else—­a bomb or an earthquake—­might merely have created curiosity, but this was different.

Quite unostentatiously I vacated my position at fine leg and merged myself with the slips, who, together with point and cover, were bearing a course towards the labyrinthine ways of the kitchen-garden.  After vainly searching for an imaginary ball and finding that we were not actually attacked from the rear, we ventured at length to return.

Kippy and the Colonel were conversing on the centre of the well-worn pitch.  The Colonel was speaking.

“...  Lose ten runs and the match!  I never heard such infernal nonsense.  That shot was worth six runs on any ground.  I shall insist on revising the rules.”

At the same time I noticed that Kippy was holding a red-and-white box, and the Colonel was with difficulty thrusting something through the inadequate slit.

It looked like a piece of paper.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Bank Cashier (gazing at golden orb of day). “IT’S A REAL HOLIDAY TO WATCH THESE SUNSETS—­AFTER ALL THE PAPER MONEY.”]

* * * * * The Huns at Home.

“In the final figure, all the dancers make bows and curtseys to the Emperor and Empress, who are either standing or sitting at this time on the throne.” —­Mr. GERARD’S description of a Court Ball.

Two chiefs with but a single chair to stand on.  And yet they call Germany undemocratic!

* * * * *

    “M.  Painleve’s resemblance to M. Briand (the former Premier) is
    string.”—­Liverpool Daily Post.

Whereas the tie between British Ministers is generally tape (red).

* * * * *

PRESERVING THEIR PROSPECTS.

    [Exemption has been granted by the Warwick Appeal Tribunal to
    a man who applied on the ground that if he lived long enough
    he would inherit L200,000.]

Extract from “The Mid-County Advertiser,” July 30th.

Martin Slim, 25, single, categoried A 1, applied for exemption to the Bumpshire Tribunal on the ground that if he were required to do military service he would lose a substantial fortune.  Applicant explained that he was engaged in an enterprise which involved the planting of 200 acres of young cork-trees.  The trees would be ready for cutting in about 1945, by which time it was estimated the demand for cork legs would enable him to realise a handsome profit on the sale of the bark.  Total exemption was granted, the chairman of the Tribunal congratulating the young man on his patriotic foresight.