And the men of the 195th carried him home with shouts and rejoicings; and Coppy, who had ridden a horse into a lather, met him, and, to his intense disgust, kissed him openly in the presence of the men. But there was balm for his dignity. His father assured him that not only would the breaking of arrest be condoned, but that the good-conduct badge would be restored as soon as his mother could sew it on his blouse-sleeve. Miss Allardyce had told the Colonel a story that made him proud of his son. 'She belonged to you, Coppy,' said Wee Willie Winkie, indicating Miss Allardyce with a grimy forefinger. 'I _knew_ she didn't ought to go acwoss ve wiver, and I knew ve wegiment would come to me if I sent Jack home.' 'You're a hero, Winkie,' said Coppy--'a _pukka_ hero!' 'I don't know what vat means,' said Wee Willie Winkie, 'but you mustn't call me Winkie any no more. I'm 'Percival Will'am Will'ams.' And in this manner did Wee Willie Winkie enter into his manhood. A MATTER OF FACT. And if ye doubt the tale I tell, Steer through the South Pacific swell; Go where the branching coral hives Unending strife of endless lives, Where, leagued about the 'wildered boat, The rainbow jellies fill and float; And, lilting where the laver lingers, The starfish trips on all her fingers; Where, 'neath his myriad spines ashock, The sea-egg ripples down the rock; An orange wonder dimly guessed, From darkness where the cuttles rest, Moored o'er the darker deeps that hide The blind white Sea-snake and his bride Who, drowsing, nose the long-lost ships Let down through darkness to their lips. _The Palms_. Once a priest, always a priest; once a mason, always a mason; but once a journalist, always and for ever a journalist. There were three of us, all newspaper men, the only passengers on a little tramp steamer that ran where her owners told her to go. She had once been in the Bilbao iron ore business, had been lent to the Spanish Government for service at Manilla; and was ending her days in the Cape Town coolie-trade, with occasional trips to Madagascar and even as far as England. We found her going to Southampton in ballast, and shipped in her because the fares were nominal. There was Keller, of an American paper, on his way back to the States from palace executions in Madagascar; there was a burly half-Dutchman, called Zuyland, who owned and edited a paper up country near Johannesburg; and there was myself, who had solemnly put away all journalism, vowing to forget that I had ever known the difference between an imprint and a stereo advertisement.