186 "'FO' DE WAR" 



isfaction, one may ride in a manege to the manifest gain 

 of man and horse ; or, in the extreme summer heat, the 

 well- ventilated school ring is not to be despised. 



I wonder, en passant, whether I am living too much in 

 the past. It is the weakness of — shall I say middle age ? 

 I often feel like the old darky who was modestly stand- 

 ing beside a visitor to the " family " on the porch of the 

 old plantation homestead in Virginia one fine bright night 

 when Luna was out in her full majesty. " Isn't that a 

 fine moon, Uncle Joe V said the stranger. " Yes," slowly 

 assented the ancient, now somewhat threadbare servitor, 

 " dat am, fo' shure, a mighty fine moon, Massa Temple, 

 but yo' orter seen dat moon 'fo' de war !" Many a thing 

 seems to have lost a part of its ante-helium flavor in these 

 later days. Draw the rein on me if I offend too much — 

 or, better still, be tolerant. 



