The Strand 1913-3 Vol_XLV №267 March mich

THE STRAND MAGAZINE. and should never be neglected when the second object-ball lies near a cushion, and the niceties of positional play do not demand a direct contact on that ball. Mention of positional play reminds me that the two cannons we have just been dis- cussing are typical specimens of the \" gather- ing \" strokes I have exploited so much during my playing career. The central idea is always the same—namely, to bring the first object-ball round after a journey into baulk, and to cannon slowly enough on to the second object to keep both that and the cue-ball at the spot end. More than this cannot be done. It is sheer nonsense to write about controlling these \" gathering \" strokes to an inch, or even six. When I play such strokes I know that if the fates are kind, it is very wrong to allow amateurs to think that a professor can control such strokes \" to an inch,\" and to set them the heart- breaking task of striving after such unattain- able perfection. Our final stroke, No. 10, is by way of being a favourite trial horse with amateurs who have made considerable progress beyond the rudiments of the game. It is a losing hazard into a baulk pocket played with strong screw' and side. The object-ball is just out of baulk and a little away from the cushion, and the cue-ball is placed on the corner spot of the \" D \" nearest the object. The contact must not be too thick, or a kiss will result, and it must not be too thin, or the awkward angle necessary after ball contact in this stroke is not to be made. NO. 10. A KAVOUKUE \"TRIAL HORSE.\" even to me, I shall have an ideal top of the table position left, but I also know that the chance of a feasible score off either ball will be much greater—so much greater that it will be distinctly ba0 luck if the balls run virtually safe. But I may have a losing hazard presented, or a red winner which cannot be made without losing command of the balls at \" the top.\" The whole point is that when playing these \" gatherers \" I have a rough but eminently reliable notion of the approximate position of the three balls when the score is completed, and it satisfies me if anything reasonably easy is left. I have emphasized this point because, to my mind, Altogether, the amateur who can make this stroke with reasonable certainty on a standard table is entitled to credit himself with cue power of no mean order. But those who find the stroke altogether beyond them need not worry unduly. If their percentage of failures in plain-ball strokes is less than another man's they are sure to beat him, no matter if every now and again he brings off something impressive in the way of a \" big \" stroke which is outside the game of the steady but sure plain-ball hazard striker. Mastering hard strokes does not make a billiard-player. The man who succeeds never misses the easy ones. Air. John Roberts has 'written two further articles to complete tlie series, and these will be published at the commencement of the next billiard season.

A STORY FOR CHILDREN. By E. NESBIT. Illustrated by H. R. Millar. CHAPTER VI. • HE parents of Mavis, Francis, Kathleen, and Bernard were extremely sensible people. If they had not been this story could never have happened. They were as jolly as any father and mother you ever met, but they were not always fussing and worrying about their children, and they understood perfectly well that children do not care to be absolutely always under the parental eye. So that, while there were always plenty of good times in which the whole family took part, there were also times when father and mother went off together and enjoyed themselves in their own grown-up way, while the children enjoyed themselves in theirs. It happened that on this particular afternoon there was to be a concert at Lymington. Father and mother were going. The children were asked whether they wquld like to go, and refused with equal courtesy and firmness. \" Very well, then,\" said mother, \" you do whatever you like best. I should play on the shore, I think, if I were you. Only don't go round the corner of the cliff, because that's dangerous at high tide. It's safe along where you're within sight of the coastguards.\" \" Mother,\" said Kathleen, suddenly, \" may we take some pie and things to a little boy who said he hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday ? \" \"Very well,\" said mother; \"you might ask Mrs. Pearce to give you some bread and cheese as -well. Now I must simply fly.\" Reuben did not eat with Such pretty manners as yours, perhaps, but there was no doubt about his enjoyment of the food they had brought, though he only stopped eating for half a second to answer, \" Prime, thank you,\" to Kathleen's earnest inquiries. \" Now,\" said Francis, when the last crumb of cheese had disappeared and the last trace of plum juice had been licked from the spoon —\" now, look here. We're going straight down to the shore to try and see the mermaid. And if you come with us we can disguise you.\" \" What in ? \" Reuben asked. \" We thought,\" said Mavis, gently, \" that perhaps the most suitable disguise for you would be girl's clothes.\" \" Go along on,\" said the spangled child. \" And I've brought you some of my things and some sand-shoes of France's, because, of course, mine are just kiddy shoes.\"

352 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. At that Reuben burst out laughing, and then hummed, \" Go, flatterer, go ; I'll not list to thy vow,\" quite musically. \" Oh, do you know ' The Gipsy Countess' ? How jolly ! \" said Kathleen. \" Old Mother Romaine knew a power of 5ongs,\" he said, suddenly grave. \" Come on, chuck us in the togs.\" \" You just take off your coat and come out. I'll help you dress up,\" was Francis's offer. \" Best get a skirt over my kicksies first,\" said Reuben, \"case anyone comes by and recognizes the gipsy cheild. Hand us in the silk attire and jewels you havre to spare.\" They pushed the blue serge skirt and jersey through the branches, which he held apart. \"Now the'at/- he said, reaching a hand for it. But the hat was too large for the opening in the bush, and he had to come out of it. The moment he was out the girls crowned him with, the big rush hat, round whose crown a blue scarf was twisted, and Francis and Bernard, each seizing a leg, adorned those legs with brown stockings and white sand-shoes. Reuben, the spangled runaway from the gipsy camp, stood up among his new friends, a rather awkward and quite presentable little girl. \" Now,\" he said, looking down at his serge skirt with a queer smile. \" Now we sha'n't be long.\" Nor were they. Thrusting the discarded REUBEN STOOD UP AMONG HIS NEW FRIENDS, A RATHER AWKWARD AND QUITE PRESENTABLE LITTLE GIRL.\" boots of Reuben into the kind shelter of the bush, they made straight for the sea. When they got to that pleasant part of the shore which is smooth sand and piled shingle, lying between low rocks and high cliffs, Bernard stopped short. \" Now, look here.'' he said ; \" if Sabrina

WET MAGIC. 353 So that was settled. Now came the question of where the magic words should be said. Mavis and Francis voted for the edge of the rocks, where the words had once already been so successfully spoken. Bernard said, \" Why not here, where we are ? \" Kathleen said, rather sadly, that any place would do as long as the mermaid came when she was called. But Reuben, standing sturdily in his girl's clothes, said :— \" Look 'ere. When you've run away like what I have, least said soonest mended, and out of sight's out of mind. What about caves ? \" \" Caves are too dry, except at high tide,\" said Francis, \" and then they're too wet— much.\" \" Not all caves,\" Reuben reminded him. \" If we was to turn and go up by the cliff path, there's a cave up there. I hid in it '.'other day. Quite dry except in one corner, and there it's as wet as you want—a sort of drinking trough in the rocks it looks like, only deep.\" \" Is it sea water ? \" Mavis asked, anxiously. And Reuben said, \" Bound to be—so near the sea and all.\" But it wasn't, for when they had climbed the cliff path, and Reuben had shown them where to turn aside for it, and had put aside the brambles and gorse that quite hid the cave's mouth, Francis saw at once that the water here could not be sea water. It was too far above the line which the waves reached, even in the stormiest weather. \" So it's no use,\" he explained. But the others said, \" Oh, do let's try, now we are here.\" And they went on into the dusky twilight of the cave. It was a very pretty cave, not chalk like the cliffs, but roofed and walled with grey flints such as the houses and churches are built of that you see on the downs near Brighton and Eastbourne. \" This isn't an accidental .ave, you know,\" said Bernard, importantly. \" It's built by the hand of man in distant ages, like Stone- henge and the Kit's Coty House.\" The cave was lighted from the entrance, where the sunshine crept faintly through the brambles. Their eyes soon grew used to the kloom, and then they could see that the floor of the cave was of dry white sand, and that along one end was a narrow dark pool of water. Ferns fringed its edge and dropped their fronds to its smooth surface—a surface which caught a gleam of light, and shone VoL xlv.—36. whitely. But the pool was very still, and, they felt somehow, without knowing Why, very deep. \" It's no good—no earthly,\" said Francis. \" But it's an awfully pretty cave,\" said Mavis, consolingly. \" Thank you for showing it to us, Reuben. And it's jolly cool. Do let's rest a minute or two. I'm simply

354 THE STRAXD MAGAZINE. that sort of ungratefulness and—what's the word ? \" \" Snobbishness,\" said Francis, firmly. \" Is that what you call it ? is most frightfully infectious. And your air's abso- lutely crammed with the germs of it. That's why I was so horrid. You do forgive me, don't you, dears ? And I was so selfish, too—oh. horrid ! But it's all washed off now in the nice clean sea, and I'm as sorry as if it had been my fault—which it really and truly wasn't.\" The children said \"All right,\" and she wasn't to mind, and it didn't matter, and all the things you say when people say they are, sorry and you cannot kiss them and say \" Right-o,\" which is the natural answer to such confessions. \" It was very curious,\" she said, thought- fully—\" a most odd experience. That little boy, his having been born of people who had always been rich, really seemed to me to be important. I assure you it did. Funny, wasn't it ? And now I want you all to come home with me and see where I live.\" She smiled radiantly at them, and they all said \" Thank you,\" and looked at each other rather blankly. \" All our people will be unspeakably pleased to see you. We mer- people are not really ungrateful; you mustn't think that.\" she said, pleadingly. She looked very kind, very friendly. But Francis thought of the Lorelei. Just so kind and friendly must the Lady of the Rhine have looked to the \" sailor in a little skiff \" whom he had disentangled from Heine's poem last term, with the aid of the German dicker. By a curious coincidence, and the same hard means, Mavis had, only last term, read of Undine, and she tried not to think that there was any lack of soul in the mermaid's kind eyes. Kathleen, who, by another coincidence, had fed her fancy, in English literature, on the Forsaken Merman, was more at ease. \" Do you mean down with you under the sea ? \" she asked— \" Where the sea-snakes coil and twine, Dry their mail and bask in the brine, Where great whales go sailing by, Sail and sail with unshut eye Round the world for ever and aye ? \" \" Well, it's not exactly like that, really,\" said the mermaid; \" but you'll see soon enough.\" This had, in Bernard's ears, a sinister ring. \" Why,\" he asked, suddenly, \" did you say you wanted to see us at dead of night ? \" \" It's the usual time, isn't it ? \" she asked, looking at him with innocent surprise. \" It is in all the stories. You know we have air stories, just as you have fairy stories and water stories ; and the rescuer almost always comes to the castle gate at dead of night, on a coal-black steed or a dapple grey, you know; but as there were four of you besides me and my tail, I thought it more considerate to suggest a chariot. Now, we really ought to be going.\"

WET MAGIC. 355 She laughed merrily at the thought. But her laugh sounded a little angry, too. \" Come, don't be foolish,\" she said. \" You'll never have such a chance again. And I feel that this air is full of your horrid human microbes—distrust, suspicion, fear, anger, Kathleen bent over the water to give it, and in one awful instant the mermaid had reared herself up in the water, caught Kathleen in her long white arms, puhcd her over the edge of the pool, and with a bubbling splash disappeared with her beneath the dark water. \"THK MI.RMAID REARED HERSELF UP IN THE WATER AND CAUGHT KATHLEEN 1,N HKR LONG WHITE ARMS.\" resentment—horrid little germs. I don't want to risk catching them. Come.\" \" No,\" said Francis, and held out to her the lock of hair. So did Mavis and Bernard and Kathleen, only Kathleen said, \" I should have liked to. but I promised Bernard I would not do anything unless he said I might.\" It was towards Kathleen that the mermaid turned, holding out a white hand for the lock. Mavis screamed and knew it. Francis and Bernard thought they did not scream. It was the spangled child alone who said nothing. He alone had not offered to give back the lock of soft hair. He had in- stead knotted it round his neck. He now tied a further knot and stepped forward and spoke in tones which the other three thought the most noble they had ever heard. \" She give me the pie,\" he said, and leapt into the water. He sank at once. And this, curiously enough, gave the others confidence. If he had struggled— but no, he sank like a stone, or like a diver who means diving and diving to the very bottom. \" She's my sister,\" said Bernard, and leapt. \" If it's magic it's all right, and if it isn't, we couldn't go back without her,\" said Mavis, hoarsely. And she and Francis took hands and jumped together. It was not so difficult as it sounds. From the moment of Kathleen's disappearance the sense of magic—which is rather like very sleepy comfort and sweet scent and sweet music that you just can't hear the tune of— had been growing stronger and stronger. And there are some things so horrible tha£ if you can bring yourself to face them you simply can't believe that they're true. It did

35° THE STRAND MAGAZINE. not seem possible, when they came quite close to the idea, that a mermaid could really come and talk so kindly and then drown the five children who had rescued her. \" It's all right,\" Francis cried, as they jumped. \" I \" He shut his mouth just in time, and down they went. You have probably dreamed that you were a perfect swimmer. You know the delight of that dream-swimming, which is no effort at all. and yet carries you as far and as fast as you choose. It was like that with the children. The moment they touched the water they felt that they belonged in it— that they were as much at home in water as in air. As they sank beneath the water their feet went up and their heads went down, and there they were swimming down- wards with long, steady, easy strokes. It was like swimming down a well that presently widened to a cavern. Suddenly Francis found that his head was above water. So was Mavis's. \" All right so far,\" she said ; \" but how are we going to get back ? \" \" Oh, the magic will do that,\" he answered, and swam faster. The cave was lighted by bars of phos- phorescence placed like pillars against the walls. The water was clear and deeply green, and along the sides of the stream were sea-anemones and starfish of the most beautiful shapes and the most dazzling colours. The walls and roof were of mother-of-pearl, which gleamed and glistened in the pale, golden radiance of the phosphorescent pillars. It was very beautiful, and the mere pleasure of swimming so finely and easily swept away almost their last fear. This, too, went when a voice far ahead called, \" Hurry up, France ! Come on, Mavis ! \" And the voice was the voice of Kathleen. They hurried up and they came on, and the gleaming, soft light grew brighter and brighter. It shone all along the way they had to go, making a path of glory such as the moon makes across the sea on a summer night. And presently they saw that this \" FIVE .STEPS LKII VV TO THE GATE, AM) .SITTING ON IX \\VKKK KATHLEEN, REUBEN, BERNARD, AND THE MKKMA1U ONi.V NOW SHE HAU NO TAIL.\" growing light was from a great gate that barred the water-way in front of them. Five steps led up to this gate, and sitting

WET MAGIC. on it, waiting (or them, were Kathleen, Reu- ben, Bernard, and the mermaid — only now she had no tail. It lay beside her on the marble steps, just as your stockings lie where you have taken them off, and there were her white feet sticking out from under a dress of soft, feathery red seaweed. They could see it was seaweed, though it was woven into a wonderful fabric. Bernard and Kathleen and the spangled boy had somehow got seaweed dresses, too, and the spangled boy no longer looked like a girl, and, looking down as they scrambled up the steps, Mavis and Francis saw that they, too. wore seaweed suits. \" Very pretty, but how awkward to go home in!\" Mavis thought. \" Now,\" said the mer- lady, \" forgive me for taking the plunge. I knew you'd hesitate for ever, and I was beginning to feel so cross ! Now, here we are at the door of our kingdom. You do want to come in, don't you ? I can bring you as far as this against your will, but not any farther. And you can't come any farther unless you trust me absolutely. Do you? Will you? Try!\" \" Yes,\" said the child- ren, all but Bernard, who said, stoutly : \" I don't; but I'll try to — I want to.\" \" Ifjyou want to, I think you do,\" said she, very kindly. \"And now I will tell you one thing. What you're breathing isn't air, and it isn't water. It's something that both water people and air people can breathe.\" The greatest common measure,\" Bernard. \" A simple equation,\" said Mavis. \" Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other,\" said Francis, and then they looked at each other and wondered why they had said such things. \" Don't worry,\" said the lady; \" it's only the influence of the place. This is the cave of learning, you know, very dark at the beginning and getting lighter and lighter as you get nearer to the golden door. All these rocks are made of books, really, and they exude learning from every crack. We cover them up with pretty things as well as we can, but the learning will leak out. Let us go through the gate, or you'll all be talking Sanskrit before we know where we are.\" She opened the gate. A great flood of

A Page of Tongue -Twisters. Bill had a bill board. Bill also had a board bill. The board bill bored Bill, so Bill sold the bill board to pay his board bill. So after Bill sold his bill board to pay his board bill, the board bill no longer bored Bill. Our readers will remember that in a recent issue we published the above story of Bill and his Board, and at lli same time offered to print and pay for any sentences of the same kind which were sufficiently amusing to be used. This invitation has met with such a liberal response that we have experienced some difficulty in hmitin ' our selection to those given below. It should, perhaps, be added that most of the best examples were sent in by different readers. HERE is a description of a duel between two men, whose names are Shot and Not : Shot shot the first shot, and the shot Shot shot shot not Not, and the shot Not shot shot not Shot, so Shot shot again, and again the shot Shot shot shot not Not, but the shot Not shot shot Shot, so Not won notwithstanding.— Mr. P. Casterton, London House, Wisbech, Cambs. BETTY BOTTER bought some butter, But she said. \" This butter's bitter ; If I put it in my batter, It will make my batter bitter. But a bit o' better butter Would but make my batter better.\" So she bought a bit of butter, Better than the bitter butter ; So 'twas better Betty Better Bought a bit o' better butter. —Miss Stella Brown, 84, Sistova Road, Balham, S.VV. ESAU sawed wood. Esau Wood would saw wood. All the wood Esau Wood saw, Esau Wood would saw. In other words, all the wood Esau saw to saw Esau sought to saw. All the wood Wuod would saw ! And, oh, the wood-saw with which Wood would saw wood. But one day Wood's wood-saw would saw no wood, and thus the wood Wood sawed was not the wood Wood would saw if Wood's wood-saw would saw wood. Now, Wood would saw wood with a wood-saw that would saw wood. So Esau sought a saw that would saw wood ; and one day Esau saw a saw saw wood as no other saw would saw wood. In fact, of all the wood-saws Wood ever saw saw wood, Wood never saw a wood-saw that would saw wood as that wood-saw Wood saw saw wood ; and so I saw Esau Wood saw wood with the wood-saw Wood saw saw wood.—Mr. Joseph J. Johnson, American House, Clara, King's County, Ireland. THE editor of a farmers' paper who had been keeping a record of big beets announces at last that: The beet that beat the beet that beat the other beet is now beaten by a beet that beats all the beets, whether the original beet, the beet that beat the beet, or the beet that beat the beet that beat the beet.— Mr. Arthur Frost, 62, Mercer Street, Newton-le- Willows. THE following should be read slowly, remembering that a railway sleeping-car is often called a \" sleeper \" : A sleeper is one who sleeps. A sleeper is that in which a sleeper sleeps. A sleeper is that on which the sleeper runs while the sleeper sleeps. Therefore, while tile sleeper sleeps in the sleeper, the sleeper carries the sleeper over the sleeper under the sleeper until the sleeper which carries the sleeper jumps the sleeper and wakes the sleeper in the sleeper by striking the sleeper under the sleeper on the sleeper, and there is no longer any sleeper sleeping in the sleeper on the sleeper.—Mr. A. G. Ooldspink, Crabbs Cross, near Redditch, Worcestershire. AT a mock Parliament held in Bristol, the \" Hon. Member for Stranraer \" asked the \" Right Hon. the President of the Board of Trade \" (referring to the

CURIOSITIES. [ We shall lit glad to receive Contributions to this section, and to pay for such as are accepted. \"| A MUNICIPAL \"AU REVOIR.\" SAN BERNARDINO, California, being located in the extreme western portion of the United States, one might expect a certain amount of breezi- ness on the part of the inhabitants. The accompanying photograph shows the unconventional greeting con- veyed by a signboard, which the municipality has placed at a conspicuous point of the principal auto- mobile road leading from the cily.—Mr. James C. Threlfall, Box 555, San Bernardino, California, U.S.A. TWO HEADS OR TWO TAILS? I SEND you a photograph of a malformed earth- worm, which I found at Henley-on-Thames. Although I have been a fisherman for the lust thirty years, and have seen many thousands of worms, I have never before seen a deformed one, nor have any of my fishing friends'. It is a mystery to us how it managed to make its way through the earth.—Mr. Sydney Morgan, 65, Montholme Road, New Wands- worth, S.W. BY WHOM WAS IT COINED? HAVE in my possession a curious brass coin, and should very much like to know why it was coined, and by whom. It will be seen that one side represents the disturbed state of France in 1794, with (ire in all corners, the throne upside down, honour un-ler- foot, glory set on one side, and re- ligion overthrown. As the other side reads, \" May Great Britain ever re- main the reverse,\" the meaning is, of course, obvious. —Lara Pacho Va. Luigi, Lari, Pisa, Italy. AN OWL IN A COWL. 1^11 IS owl —a brown one— made its home in the above cowl for ten days re- cently. It flew away in the even- ings, but was back in its strange home early next morn- ing. The cowl is on the chimney of a house only a few yards from a busy thorough- fare in Kew; it revolves very freely, and the owl was always shel- tered from the wind. — Miss II. Hope, 16, West Park Gardens, KCH.

36° THE STRAXD MAGAZINE. COMPANY OF INDIA CHASDKAWLI. (nn Empress.) and am able dresser.—Mr. Lane, London. \\V'.('. through tlie unsuccessful treatment of several doctors it was in danger of amputation. However, a few months back I was fortunate enough to get into the hands of a doctor, who saved it for me by means of two silver plates and eight screws, which are fixed right into the bone. The x-ray photo, lierewith gives a good idea of this very clever operation, though all the screws are not visible. I now feel no pain or inconvenience whatever, to follow my occupation as a hair- F. Jarvis, i, Kemble Street, Drury A BRIDAL SPOON. rT\"\"IIIS curious spoon, J. with its two joined bowls, is to be seen in the museum of the Carmarthen- shire Antiquarian Society at Carmarthen. It is known as a bridal spoon, and was formerly used in the county, on the eve of their marri- age, by the bride and bride- groom, who, if they could, both together, drink out of the two bowls, without spilling any of the con- tents, would have a happy married life. If, on the contrary, they spilled any of the liquor, misfortune and unhappiness would be their lot. As may be imagined, the spoon is the object of many witticisms on the part of visitors to the museum. — Mr. S. D. Phillips, Mair Studio, St. Clears, Wales. Answers to Last Montk s Quaint Questions. fST DROP. lit SCEHE-Kaja Ramas Llarbar and to diatui about moonface (Ohandrawali) 2nd SCtNE - In- i:, between Gang) and MebLab Khan fur bringing Chawirawli in In- llarbar 3rd, SCEIIl —Chudriwli d. • :>.,1 bj BagcbeU and ukfB awaj with him 4tfc SCENE -Moum.nj of Rang<M Siugh OD l,» htaw 51* SC?»E -In tie wav Chamlimwh «» Muhatma preying God «nd c*tne (o bim aa a <,urd a. Her Mahal ma was beloved u> ber and M.hilma r queited her lo fulfil) But wishes (I. SCENE -Palace of ( h»mlr.,wl, lo be angry of CUandrawlia mother and 10 arnl b.r to undpf home 7th SCENE -To be stolen of thei- ben and told to Morn Khan etc 8 h SCENE _R,g of Oult»r To enter of Ranjil