CHRISTMAS IN WAR TIME 77 



noticeable as people hurry to secure the most 

 suitable gifts for old friends ; no laughter when 

 the latest invention of mechanical toy was packed 

 away in its cardboard box, ready to surprise the 

 babies. Hurriedly and in the dark the shoppers 

 flew along the streets of Brighton, for the East 

 Coast had already been raided, and our turn might 

 come too at any moment. Yet, with all the tales 

 of Taubes flying through the air and news of bombs 

 dropped on English soil, there comes to mind the 

 reassuring recollection that as long ago as 1804 

 one of the most ambitious leaders of men con- 

 centrated much thought upon the invasion of our 

 country, and yet nothing came of it in the end. 

 Although a medal was ordered to be struck, repre- 

 senting Hercules strangling a mermaid, and bearing 

 the legend " Descente en Angleterre, frappe d 

 Londres, 1804," it was never required. 



One noticeable effect of the war is that much of 

 the rigid reserve of strangers is blown away. 

 Fellow-travellers in the train do not subside in 

 their customary way into a corner and doze quietly 

 after their strenuous shopping, neither do they 

 become engrossed in the contents of a pocket-book, 

 counting up the presents that have been obtained 

 and noting those that were forgotten. They all 

 prefer to impart to others any information they can 

 give about the war. Some one has a brother who, 

 " Thank goodness, has been wounded and now is 

 safely resting in the hospital at the base." I am 

 told that the wound " is only in the thigh, and our 

 family think that on the whole that is the best place 

 that could have been chosen." Others, still mind- 



