He is joking. Just as many jokes here as ever before. Even when singing hymns. When he and Paul are singing, they do a funny dance with their arms. (Showing a sort of cake-walk--moving arms up and down.) (Feda.--It's a silly dance, anyway.) Good-bye, and good luck. [Characteristic; see, for instance, a letter of his on page 41 above. I happen to have just seen another letter, to Brodie, which concludes: "Well, good-bye, Brodie, and good luck."--O. J. L.] Yes, he is going. Yes. He is gone now, yes. Do you want to say anything to Feda? A. M. L.--Yes, thank you very much for all your help. The messages are sometimes difficult, but it is most important to try and give exactly what you hear, and nothing more, whether you understand it or not. Feda understands. She only say exactly what she hear, even though it is double-Dutch. Don't forget to give my love to them all. A. M. L.--Good-bye, Feda. (Shakes hands.) Medium comes-to in about two or three minutes. (Signed) A. M. L. 21 _December_ 1915 [All written out fair same evening. Part on way home, and part after arriving, without disturbance from seeing anybody.] NOTES BY O. J. L. ON THE A. M. L. RECORD This seems to have been a good average sitting; it contains a few sufficiently characteristic remarks, but not much evidential. What is said about songs in it, however, is rather specially good. In further explanation, a few notes, embodying more particular information obtained by me from the family when reading the sitting over to them, may now be added:-- NOTE A The 'A _and_ B' manifestly mean his brothers Alec and Brodie; and there was a natural reason for bracketing them together, inasmuch as they constitute the firm Lodge Brothers, with which Raymond was already to a large extent, and hoped to be still more closely, associated. But there may have been a minor point in it, since between Alec and Brodie long ago, at their joint preparatory school, there was a sort of joke, of which Raymond was aware, about problems given in algebra and arithmetic books: where, for instance, A buys so many dozen at some price, and B buys some at another price; the question being to compare their profits. Or where A does a piece of work in so many days, and B does something else. It is usually not at all obvious, without working out, which gets the better of it, A or B; and Alec seems to have recognised, in the manner of saying A and B, some reference to old family chaff on this subject. NOTE B The reference to a square piece of stuff, cut with scissors, suggests to his mother, not the wool-work which she is doing like everybody else for soldiers, but the cutting of a circular piece out of a Raymond blanket that came back with his kit, for the purpose of covering a round four-legged table which was subsequently used for sittings, in order to keep it clean without its having to be dusted or otherwise touched by servants. It is not distinct enough to be evidential, however.