ON CERTAIN HUMANITIES 291 



stay at Ipswich was cut short by advancement to 

 a better station, I greatly miss. He enjoyed his 

 little joke and he also appreciated it in others. 

 In the early days of the war I had dropped in to 

 see him and happened to be wearing a pair of 

 wristers I had brought from Labrador that were 

 intended for the Indian trade. They were in 

 stripes of vivid blue and red and yellow and white 

 and I remarked that I called them my ''camouflage 

 wristers." "Oh," said Mrs. Howard, "do tell 

 me what you mean by camouflage, I have seen 

 that word in the papers lately." I explained 

 that vessels were painted in alternate stripes of 

 various colors, and, at a distance on the sea, it 

 was difficult or impossible to see them, and that 

 this was called camouflage. "And," I added 

 "when I wear these wristers and get off about 

 three hundred yards, you can't see me." Her 

 face expressed great astonishment at this remark- 

 able information, but the Captain's face was calm. 

 He went at once to the pantry, soon to reappear 

 with a large piece of cake on a plate. This he 

 solemnly presented to me with the remark, "I 

 am somewhat of a liar myself I" 



