'Father, I wants to make the General Public eat 'em, and pay for the privilege. I've heard in my sleep a voice in my ear that I do believe comes from the General Public, saying, "Jim! Jim! give us thistles!" And the wind always whistles to the same tune. And the thunder rolling seems to be the voice of the General Public, braying, "Give us thistles!" And, father, even the very bees when they hum about the flowers seem to convey to me in a whisper the message, as from a lover, but it comes from the General Public, "Give us thistles. We are sick for thistledown. 'Tisn't bread we wants—'tisn't meat—'tis thistledown." I can't say exactly how I'll dispose of it to them,—whether rolled up in pills, or stuffed in feather beds,—but I know the Public will buy thistles in any disguise. And then, father, think of the profits.' 'Mark,' said Zita, 'let him go. Cheap-jacking is an edication. It teaches a chap to know the General Public, what to lay on his back, how to tickle his ears, what you can make him swallow. If you think of making Jim a mimber of Parliament, there is no school, no college more suitable than the Cheap Jack's van. Let him go, Mark. He's a good boy—he'll come to no harm. He'll settle down the better after it, and he'll enjoy himself—"tremenjous."' THE END. PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF METHUEN AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS : LONDON 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. CONTENTS PAGE FORTHCOMING BOOKS, 2 BELLES LETTRES, ANTHOLOGIES, ETC., 5 POETRY, 7 ILLUSTRATED AND GIFT BOOKS, 14 HISTORY, 15 BIOGRAPHY, 17 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE AND TOPOGRAPHY, 18 NAVAL AND MILITARY, 20 GENERAL LITERATURE, 22 PHILOSOPHY, 24 THEOLOGY, 24 FICTION, 29 BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, 39 THE PEACOCK LIBRARY, 39 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES, 39 SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TODAY, 40 CLASSICAL TRANSLATIONS, 41 EDUCATIONAL BOOKS, 42 OCTOBER 1900 OCTOBER 1900 MESSRS. METHUEN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS Travel, Adventure and Topography THE INDIAN BORDERLAND: Being a Personal Record of Twenty Years. By Sir T. H. HOLDICH, K.C.I.E. Illustrated. _Demy 8vo. 15s. net._ This book is a personal record of the author's connection with those military and political expeditions which, during the last twenty years, have led to the consolidation of our present position in the North-West frontier of India. It is a personal history of trans-frontier surveys and boundary demarcations, commencing with Penjdeh and ending with the Pamirs, Chitral, and Tirah. MODERN ABYSSYNIA. By A. B. WYLDE. With a Map and a Portrait. _Demy 8vo. 15s. net._