_Injured Individual._ "Heigho! I _did_ think I should find some refuge from the miseries of the seaside in the comforts of a bed! Just look where my feet are, Maria!" _His Wife._ "_Well_, John! it's _only_ for a _month_, you know!"] * * * * * [Illustration: BLIGHTED HOPES _Extract of letter from Laura to Lillie_:--"I declare, dear, I never gave the absurd creature the slightest encouragement. I did say, one evening, I thought the little sandy coves about Wobbleswick were charming, especially one. _The idea!_--of his thinking I was alluding to him!"----&c., &c.] * * * * * [Illustration: SENSITIVE "I think I told you, in my letter of the first of October, of his absurd interpretation of an innocent remark of mine about the sandy shores of Wobbleswick. Well, would you believe it, dear! we were strolling on the Esplanade, the other day, when he suddenly left Kate and me, and took himself off in a tremendous huff because we said we liked walking _with an object_!!" [_Extract from a later letter of Laura's to Lillie._ ] * * * * * [Illustration: PREHISTORIC PEEPS "No bathing to-day!"] * * * * * [Illustration: PREHISTORIC PEEPS A Nocturne which would seem to show that "residential flats" were not wholly unknown even in primeval times!] * * * * * [Illustration: _Blinks._ "The sun 'll be over the yard-arm in ten minutes. _Then_ we'll have a drink!" _Jinks._ "I think I'll have one while I'm waiting!"] * * * * * [Illustration: TRIALS OF A CONVALESCENT _Tompkins_ (_in a feeble voice, for the fourth or fifth time, with no result_). "Chairman!!! chairman!!!" _That Awful Boy._ "Lydies and gentlemen----!!"] * * * * * SEASIDE ASIDES (_Paterfamilias in North Cornwall_) [Illustration] Oh! how delightful now at last to come Away from town--its dirt, its degradation, Its never-ending whirl, its ceaseless hum. (A long chalks better, though, than sheer stagnation.) For what could mortal man or maid want more Than breezy downs to stroll on, rocks to climb up, Weird labyrinthine caverns to explore? (There's nothing else to do to fill the time up.) Your honest face here earns an honest brown, You ramble on for miles 'mid gorse and heather, Sheep hold athletic sports upon the down (Which makes the mutton taste as tough as leather). The place is guiltless, too, of horrid piers. And likewise is not Christy-Minstrel tooney; No soul-distressing strains disturb your ears. (A German band has just played "_Annie Rooney_".) The eggs as fresh as paint, the Cornish cream The boys from school all say is "simply ripping." The butter, so the girls declare, "a dream." (The only baccy you can buy quite dripping.)