"No, I don't mean that at all," said my wife hastily. "You quite misunderstand me. Of course everyone is to have as much, quite as much, food as he wants." "Stop a bit. Does that mean as much as he likes?" I asked. "Or as much as his system requires?" suggested the Reverend Henry. "Or as much as he can contain?" demanded Sinclair. "It may seem to be a fine point, but I think we ought to have it cleared up." The hostess resumed: "Everyone is to have as much as he likes, certainly. Of course he is. We are not going to be inhospitable. On the contrary, we are prepared to share our last crust. But there must be absolutely no waste." There was a short pause. No one was inclined to demur to that proposition. The Reverend Henry alone had doubts. "It is difficult at a time like this, you know," he began mildly, "to be quite certain that you are doing the right thing. If you stop all waste in your household are you sure that you may not be encouraging unemployment? If you don't waste biscuits it follows that fewer biscuits are made and therefore----" The Reverend Henry was adjudged to be on the wrong tack and his protest was swept aside. "Breakfast now," my wife began briskly, bringing into action her block of notepaper and fountain-pen. "All that I want to know--I wouldn't dream of stinting you--is--how much do you intend to eat?" She looked round expectantly, the pen poised in her hand. There was rather an awkward pause. The question seemed at first blush a little indelicate. Sinclair tried to temporize. "But wait a bit," he said. "Can't the servants manage to consume----" "The servants breakfast long before you are up, Mr. Sinclair," my wife reminded him. "It's perfectly simple," said I, suddenly taking the floor; "I think it an admirable idea, the essence of good citizenship. What we have got to do is to declare our appetites overnight so that every man eats the food he has booked and we make a clean sweep. Book me for two eggs and a kipper." "Sorry there are no kippers to-morrow," said my wife. "Boiled eggs, bacon and kidneys and mushrooms." "It would be wrong to suppose that I do not consider it a wise and indeed public-spirited idea in every way," said the Reverend Henry after some reflection, "but it is a little difficult, you know. It depends so much upon how one sleeps and what one feels like, and what sort of morning it is, and the letters that come, and the war news." "And on the temperature of one's tub," added Sinclair. "For my part I eat a lot at breakfast. I don't feel that I have the face to advertise the whole catalogue in this sort of way. It's too cold-blooded. Besides, I fluctuate like anything." "Come on," said I. "You fellows are simply trying to shirk the thing. I declare two eggs, no bacon and three mushrooms, assuming an average size for mushrooms. One cup and a half of coffee. Three lumps in all."