_Grumb_. Enough, enough; you have it. Only I won't be told I was
revelling in comfort when I was doing nothing of the kind. I'll bear
it, but I won't grin and say I like it; I'll say nothing against it if
it's better not, but I shan't say what is untrue in favour of it.
[_Exeunt arm-in-arm_.]

Our two interlocutors fairly exhaust the facts of the case between them,
and the historian, who can serve no purpose by trying to think things
better or worse than they were, will silence neither. We give our honest
praise to the organisers of the food supply for their effectual
performance of a very heavy, vexatious, and precarious task, the scale of
which we have been brought by inquiry to estimate at its true magnitude.
At the same time we will spare such sympathy as the dignity of the matter
demands for the sufferers from tough beef, tub butter, smoked puddings,
cold potatoes, and congealed gravy, and not mislead any refugee
schoolmaster of the future into the belief that he can dine in the
wilderness as comfortably as in Pall Mall.




CHAPTER VIII.--DIVERSIONS AT BORTH: NEW SOIL, NEW FLOWERS.


_There be delights_, _there be recreations and jolly pastimes that
will fetch the day about from sun to sun_, _and rock the tedious year
as in a delightful dream_.

MILTON, "AREOPAGITICA."