“That’s the beauty of the new system!” Mein Herr cried exultingly. “They pay _us_: we don’t pay _them_! I’ve often got as much as five shillings for sending a parcel.” “But doesn’t your Government object?” “Well, they _do_ object, a little. They say it comes so expensive, in the long run. But the thing’s as clear as daylight, by their own rules. If I send a parcel, that weighs a pound _more_ than nothing, I _pay_ three-pence: so, of course, if it weighs a pound _less_ than nothing, I ought to _receive_ three-pence.” “It is _indeed_ a useful article!” I said. “Yet even ‘Imponderal’ has its disadvantages,” he resumed. “I bought some, a few days ago, and put it into my _hat_, to carry it home, and the hat simply floated away!” “Had oo some of that funny stuff in oor hat _today_?” Bruno enquired. “Sylvie and me saw oo in the road, and oor hat were ever so high up! Weren’t it, Sylvie?” “No, that was quite another thing.” said Mein Herr. “There was a drop or two of rain falling: so I put my hat on the top of my stick—as an umbrella, you know. As I came along the road,” he continued, turning to me, “I was overtaken by——” “——a shower of rain?” said Bruno. “Well, it _looked_ more like the tail of a dog,” Mein Herr replied. “It was the most curious thing! Something rubbed affectionately against my knee. And I looked down. And I could see _nothing_! Only, about a yard off, there was a dog’s tail, wagging, all by itself!” “Oh, _Sylvie_!” Bruno murmured reproachfully. “Oo didn’t finish making him visible!” “I’m _so_ sorry!” Sylvie said, looking very penitent. “I meant to rub it along his back, but we were in such a hurry. We’ll go and finish him tomorrow. Poor thing! Perhaps he’ll get no supper tonight!” “_Course_ he won’t!” said Bruno. “Nobody never gives bones to a dog’s tail!” Mein Herr looked from one to the other in blank astonishment. “I do not understand you,” he said. “I had lost my way, and I was consulting a pocket-map, and somehow I had dropped one of my gloves, and this invisible _Something_, that had rubbed against my knee, actually brought it back to me!” “Course he did!” said Bruno. “He’s _welly_ fond of fetching things.” Mein Herr looked so thoroughly bewildered that I thought it best to change the subject. “What a useful thing a pocket-map is!” I remarked. “That’s another thing we’ve learned from _your_ Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much further than _you_. What do you consider the _largest_ map that would be really useful?” “About six inches to the mile.” “Only _six inches_!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six _yards_ to the mile. Then we tried a _hundred_ yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of _a mile to the mile_!” “Have you used it much?” I enquired.