"`The cobberer oart not to be disterbd for it spoyls everything--it spoyls your close and--' wire in, Wally, what else does it do? You might tell a chap." "What I'll do to you, you cad, and that's pull your nose if you don't shut up!" retorted Wally, who was busy over his own theme. "`--and puis yore knows if yore a cad, and don't shut up.' There, bother it, that ought to do--twelve lines. Good enough for him." "Stuck in the stops?" asked Ashby. "No; by the way--glad you reminded me--I suppose about every four words, eh?" "Something about that," said Ashby. So D'Arcy sprinkled a few stops judiciously through his copy, and having done so began to upbraid his partners for their slowness. Some time was lost in suppressing him, but he was eventually disposed of under the bath, which was turned upside down to accommodate him and sat upon by the other three, who were thus able to continue their work in peace. Ashby was done first. He had a congenial subject and wrote _con amore_. "I shall now say something about the pig which is my favourite annimal-- The pig is a quadruped--Sometimes he is male in which case he is called a hog. Sometimes he is female in which case he is called a sow. Pigs were rings in their noses and are fond of apple-peal. Their young are called litter and are very untidy in their habbits. Pig's cheek is nice to eat and pork in season is a treat." (The writer was very proud of this little outbreak of poetry.) "It is preferrablest roast with sage and apple sauce. I hope I have now described the pig and told you why he is my favourite." Fisher minor, on the uncongenial topic of the rabbit, found composition difficult and punctuation impossible. "I like rabbits next best to dogs which Wally has taken mine were black and white one was one and the other the other the white one died first of snuffles he had lobears the other had the same pequliarity and was swoped for 2 white mice who eskaped the first-night owing to the size of the bars there is a kind of rabbit called welsh rabbit that my father is fond of he says it goes best on toast but I give mine oats and bran it is a mistake for boys to keep rabbits because first they give them too much and burst them and then they give them too little and starve them which is not wright and makes the rabbit skinny to eat if a boy feeds rabbits well he can get his mother to give him half-a-crown a peace to make pies of them which is very agreeable so I therefore on this account consider rabbits favourites." Before this conclusion had been reached, Wally, with a complacent smile, had laid down his pen, flattering himself he had made a real good thing of the dog. He scorned commonplace language, and, mindful of the eloquent periods of certain newspapers of his acquaintance, had "let out" considerably on his favourite theme, which, if the spelling and punctuation had been as good as the language, would have been a fine performance.