After I had fraternised shamefully with all these deplorable drones, my hostess drew my attention to the French chaffinch, a line big fellow, very tame and cheerful. "We will feed him," she said, "and then you will see something that happens every day. Something very interesting." So saying she poured into a receptacle for the purpose enough seed, no doubt, to make, mixed with other things, several admirable thimble-loaves of bread substitute, and told me to watch. I watched, and very soon the French chaffinch, having eaten a certain amount of the seed, dashed his beak amid the rest with such violence that it was spilt over the pan, out of the bars and down to the ground below. "That's very wasteful," I said. "Lord DEVONPORT wouldn't like that--Lord DEVONPORT wouldn't;" this being the kind of facetious thing we are all saying just now, and something facetious being in this particular house always, for some reason or other, expected of me. "Wait a minute," my hostess replied. "There's more reason in it than you think." And there was. The whole point of this mediocre narrative consists in the fact that within a few seconds some dozen sparrows had descended to the yard and were feeding busily while the chaffinch watched from above. And this happens at every mealtime. To what extent we are contributing to the French Commissariat I cannot say; but with my own eyes I have seen a French citizen being systematically generous to his English cousins. * * * * * "The sale [of potatoes] started at 6 a.m., and the first omnibus from London brought over 200 buyers down."--_Weekly Dispatch._ A gross case of overcrowding. * * * * * [Illustration: _Civilian _(_who has been asked to luncheon at outlying fort_). "I SAY, YOU KNOW, I CAN'T POSSIBLY LAND BY THAT ABSURD LITTLE LADDER." _Host._ "ROT, OLD CHAP. I'VE HAD THE VERY DICKENS OF A JOB TO GET YOU A PASS--AND, BESIDES, PEOPLE DON'T OFTEN FALL IN."] * * * * * DOUBLE ENTENTE. ["In view of the fact that M.C. is also the abbreviation for 'Military Cross' ... it has been recommended that the abbreviations for the degrees of Bachelor of Surgery and Master of Surgery be altered from B.C. and M.C. to B.Ch. and M.Ch."] In view of the fact that P.M. is also the abbreviation for Prime Minister and Post-Mortem, the London and North-Western Railway recommend that in future the abbreviation for afternoon be A.L. (After Luncheon). In view of the fact that (as every schoolboy knows) D.D. is also the abbreviation for Double Donkey, the Upper House of Convocation recommend that in future the abbreviation for Doctor of Divinity be Doc. Div. In view of the fact that Q.S. is also the abbreviation for Quarter Sessions, the Committee of the Pharmaceutical Society recommend that in future the abbreviation for Quantum Suff. be S.W. (Say When). * * * * *