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HUMOUR'S LABOUR LOST.

_Lochtermachty, N.B. May 29th, 1919._

DEAR MR. PUNCH,--My father and I have fallen out over the question
of your literary judgment and sense of humour. If I weren't a filial
daughter I'd say that he's a ----; but I am, so I won't call him
names.

The fact is that, before he became a professional Padre, he didn't
know that such things as senses of humour existed. All that mattered
in his life were Latin and Greek and Hebrew and the other pursuits
of the classical scholar. However, during his wanderings with
the Army he has somehow managed to acquire what he calls "an
appreciation of the laughable." And that is the cause of our divided
house.

This morning at breakfast, while he was reading out the account
of the proceedings of the General Assemblies, he came upon the
interesting statement--volunteered by an eminent Edinburgh
divine--that all the ministers of the Kirk have lost a stone in
weight during the War, and that this works out at a loss of five
tons of ministerial flesh to the United Free Church of Scotland.
Then, after he had tested the accuracy of the statistics, which he
found quite incorrect, and I had meditated upon the bulk of matter
encircled by the parental Sam Browne, we were both seized with an
idea, and said "_Punch!_" at the same instant.