NOVEMBER 235 



" I cannot bear to hear a serious subject lightly 

 treated. Only a very frivolous person or an idiot 

 would do it." 



' 'And which am I, dear Petunia?" 



" I don't think I have ever considered you frivo- 

 lous," said Petunia, in real distress. Nothing but 

 a strict sense of duty could make her hurt my feel- 

 ings ; but this sense the sixth sense is very 

 highly developed in Petunia as in many other 

 persons, and her friends sometimes suffer in conse- 

 quence. I think she began to feel sorry that she 

 had been unkind, so she brought out from the 

 region of her heart a letter received a week or two 

 since from a friend in South Africa. She gave me 

 to understand, without resorting to definite words, 

 that the friend was her cousin, Mr. Jervis, who is in 

 the South African Police ; but I am not sure that 

 this is fact. Mr. Mumby has never been properly 

 accounted for, and I am justified in suspending 

 judgment in the matter. 



"'The beasts here are a very cunning lot,'" she 

 read, " ' and their mimicry borders on dishonesty. 

 Some butterflies have wings just like a leaf, with 

 the veining and all complete, and there are others 

 which display greater cunning than that. They 

 know that some of their friends are provided with 

 little poison bags, which render them exceeding 

 harmful to the tummies of birds and other mur- 

 derous foes. Well, these little creatures, from 

 financial or other reasons, can't run to a poison bag, 

 so they imitate their neighbours' coats, and are 

 gradually discarding their own national dress, so 

 that only the wily naturalist can tell them from the 



