DECEMBER 143 



false, and many people I know are ready enough to 

 acknowledge what a slavery it is and how undesirable. 

 Some reconcile themselves to the folly by saying : ' Well, 

 it can't be helped, and it's good for trade.' Even if this 

 kind of artificial demand is really good for trade, which 

 many doubt, this has nothing to do with whether it has 

 a good or a bad effect on ourselves, on our children, and 

 on those who surround us. 



The giving of wedding-presents, though it is continually 

 referred to as a tax, is so essentially useful to the receivers 

 when judiciously done that I not only say nothing against 

 it, but think nothing against it. I remember, in the early 

 'Sixties, a cousin who was the victim of twenty-seven 

 ormolu inkstands ; but the practicalness of the present day 

 solves the difficulty of duplicates, as the young people 

 without the smallest concealment sell or exchange what 

 they do not care about. 



Though few people may agree with my abuse of whole- 

 sale present-giving at anniversaries, I think no one will 

 deny that it tends to destroy some of the most delightful 

 outward expressions of feeling that can exist between 

 civilised human beings. To take the trouble to find out 

 what somebody really wants ; to be struck by something 

 beautiful, and to know to whom to give it ; to supply a 

 real want to those who cannot afford it for themselves ; 

 to give anything, however trifling, as a remembrance 

 all these are the gentle sweeteners of life, and need none 

 of those goading reminders which come with the return 

 of anniversaries. And to come to the more selfish aspect 

 of the question. Instead of the callousness and almost 

 fatigue in consequence of receiving a great number of 

 presents at once, is there nob a delight that lasts through 

 life until we are quite old at suddenly receiving a sym- 

 pathetic and unexpected gift ? 



A great many people use holly and evergreens at 



