I Q2 IDLEHURST : 



sun. At times he likes to talk of the old days ; lets 

 his wife fetch down his medals, and tells us how he 

 accounted for five native troopers in one charge at 

 Sialkot, And from those ringing days to the Cross- 

 ways cottage, the yesterday's newspaper, the potato- 

 patch, the campaign as aide to the Rector against old 

 Heasman's tippling and the incurable mendicancy of 

 Widda Blackman ! If ever he asked 



" Otium divos 

 Otium bello " 



in Mutiny times or in the Khyber, perhaps he finds at 

 some hours the answer all too fully given. 



I made my usual report to the Rector on old 

 Tomsett ; little to tell of his last summer passing in 

 complete content with the occasional shilling for odd 

 jobs and the assured tea and tobacco. The latter, I 

 regret to say, generally takes the form of plug. A 

 few days ago I found him picking strawberries for 

 Lucy Sayers' preserving-pan ; and as it was a hot 

 day, I told him to help himself to a few now and 

 then. With a placid grin he indicated the bulge in 

 his mahogany cheek, and explained the solace which 

 made him superior to such gauds as Presidents or 

 Ruskins. And I could not quote ne quidnimis to him. 



The Rector is a bachelor at present, Mrs. Lydia 



