deemed it prudent to take precautions, the populace did not object. We
knew in _our_ wisdom that precautions were superfluous, but we approved,
in a general way, the principle of prudence. The proclamation
accordingly ordained that every loaf baked in future should be three
parts meal and one part flour. The bakers were given the recipé gratis,
with instructions to sell it (the bread, not the recipé) cheaply,
namely, at three pence per loaf. Theoretically, the new loaf was to
prove a palatable change; practically, the wry expression of
countenance it evoked in the process of mastication demonstrated the
contrary. The bread was light "khaki" in colour, and only in this
respect was it fashionable;--not too fashionable, because "Boer meal"
was its chief ingredient, and racial prejudice was strong. The sweetness
of the old-fashioned white loaf was wanting, and we soon clamoured for
its restoration. But the brazen baker would talk of colour-blindness,
and insist that yellow was white. And when we hit upon the plan of
demanding brown bread, the fellow would argue that yellow was brown!
When black was asked for--well, we did not ask for that. But there was
no option in the matter; the Colonel's prescription had to be accepted.
The sensible course was to try to acquire a taste for it; and we did; we
succeeded--too well!--until at last we could not get _enough_ of the
dough. The unkindest cut of all, however, did not come until pies,
pastry, and sweet cakes of all kinds were pronounced indigestible. The
refined cruelty of this revolutionary decree was bitterly resented; not
only by the confectioners, whose shop windows were works of art, but
also by the public, who loved art. Even gouty subjects and folk with
livers protested. As for the ladies, the war on sponge cakes almost
broke their hearts. Pastry was to many of them a staple sustenance, and
conducive--besides being nice--to a, wan complexion. Five o'clock teas
lost prestige; the tarts were gone. It was a case of Hamlet without the
Prince of Denmark. The propriety of a deputation to the Colonel, to test