o' mushrooms."]

* * * * *

TWENTY YEARS ON.

We were sitting in the verandah, Ernest and I. On the greensward before
us Ernest Junior and James Junior (I am James) disported themselves as
became their years, which were respectively 1-3/4 and 1-5/8. In the
middle distance, or as middle as the size of our lawn permits, might be
seen the mothers of Ernest Junior and James Junior deep in conversation,
discussing, perhaps, the military prowess of their lords, though I
rather fear I caught the word "jumper" every now and then.

A loud difference of opinion between James II. and Ernest II. as to the
possession of a wooden horse momentarily disturbed the peaceful scene.
It was left to Ernest and myself to settle it, our incomparable wives
being still completely engrossed with the subject of our military
prowess (or of jumpers). When quiet reigned once more Ernest said, "Have
you ever looked twenty years on?"

"Practically never," I answered. "It is too exhausting."

"It is exhausting, but with my usual energy I do it all the same," said
Ernest, who is as a fact the world's champion lotus-eater. "Last night I
was picturing a little scene in the year 1940. Shall I tell you of it?"
And without waiting for my assent he proceeded:--

"The scene is laid in an undergraduate's rooms. Ernest Junior and James
Junior are discovered in _négligé_ attitudes and the conversation