"'Ang on to 'is kar-kee" said the hoarse-voiced man. The setter-down of corporals retired within himself, probably to compose some humorous repartee. The warrant officer came out of _Freckles_ and suggested writing a letter. "'E 'as done. 'E's wrote an' told 'em 'as 'e can't send 'is kar-kee back until 'e gets a suit o' Martin 'Enry's or thirty bob in loo of same. An' all as they done was to write again an' demand 'is uniform at once." The warrant officer sighed and opined that orders were orders. "Yes, but 'e 'd 'ave to carry 'em to the Post Office naked, wouldn't 'e? An' 'ow about goin' to buy new ones? That's if 'e 'd drawed 'is pay, which 'e 'asn't. Unreasonable, that's wot I calls it." "'Asn't 'e got no civvies at all?" said the small man, beginning to look sceptical. "'Asn't 'e got no one as 'd lend 'im a soot? Anyways, 'e could get some one to post 'em for 'im, an' then stop in bed till 'is others come." "'E's a very lonely feller," said the champion of the unclad; "'e lives in lodgin's, an 'e 'asn't got no friends. If 'e 'adn't got no clothes for to fetch 'is pay in, wot then?" A gloomy silence, a silence fraught with the inevitability of destiny, settled on the party. The warrant officer, who had been pretending to resume _Freckles_, presently looked up and suggested that he could go in his uniform to a tailor, explain the position and obtain clothes on credit. The originator of the problem thought hard for a minute. "'E isn't a man as I'd care to trust myself," he said rather unexpectedly, "an' I don't think no one else would neither." It was at this point that the man from H.M.S. _Hedgehog_ (or, to be precise, H.M.S. _Something Else_) fell into the conversation suddenly, like a bomb. "'E wouldn't be naked," he said earnestly; "'e'd 'ave 'is shirt." This was a staggerer. One of those great simple truths sometimes overlooked by more abstruse thinkers. But the owner of the problem made one more stand. "'Oo'd walk about in a shirt?" he said scornfully. "Me," said the large seaman, "time I was torpedoed...." He didn't say another word; but the problem was irretrievably lost. There had been something magnificently daring about the idea of a man walking about like a lost cherub; partly clothed, nobody cared very much what became of him. Besides, we all wanted to hear Admiralty secrets. We sat there in respectful silence while the train rattled on its way; but the large seaman only went on smiling peacefully to himself, as if he were ruminating in immense satisfaction upon unprecedented bags of submarines. * * * * * "The architect for the new building left nothing out that would at all hamper the comfort of those who make this hotel their stopping place."--_New Zealand Paper._ We know that architect. * * * * *