MY DEAR NEPHEW,--Another year has gone by, and once more I am reminded that my little godson is growing up to man's estate. Your fifteenth birthday! And I remember when you were only--(_Here Master Egbert skips three sheets and comes to the last page of the letter_) ... I am sending you a birthday present--something of greater value than usual. It is a handsome and costly edition of _Forty Years of Missionary Endeavour in Eastern Polynesia_, recently published. The author has actually signed his name upon the fly-leaf for you. Think of that! The illustrations are by an Associate of the Royal Academy. I hope you are well, and pursuing your studies diligently.--Your affectionate aunt, DEBORAH SITWELL. (_Reply._ _November 7._ DEAR AUNT DEBORAH,--Thank you very much for so kindly remembering my birthday. The book has just arrived, and I shall always look upon it as one of my most valued possessions. I will read it constantly--whenever I have time, in fact; but really after being in school hard at work for ten or twelve hours a day, one is more inclined for bed than books, even one on such an absorbing subject as this. I am much interested in Missionary Endeavours, and help them in every way I can. We are having a sermon on the subject next Sunday. There is to be a collection, and I intend to make a special effort.--Your affec. nephew, E. BUMPLEIGH.) * * * * * Extract from the Catalogue of the Killickite House Library, Grandwich School: _"Forty Years of Missionary Endeavour in Eastern Polynesia._ Presented by E. Bumpleigh, Nov. 8." CHAPTER EIGHT THE FATHER OF THE MAN Among the higher English castes it is not good form to appear deeply interested in any thing, or to hold any serious views about anything, or to possess any special knowledge about anything. In fact, the more you know the less you say, and the more passionately you are interested in a matter, the less you "enthuse" about it. That is the Public School Attitude in a nutshell. It is a pose which entirely misleads foreigners and causes them to regard the English as an incredibly stupid and indifferent nation.