Various

“ Now that the World has taken his wife to the sea-side or the Continent, there is not much demand for heavy literature—especially as the cost of the over-weight in luggage is something considerable beyond Calais—and consequently trifles light as air have become the popular brain-food of the multitude. ”

“ If a fish will touch anything, he will touch spiteful cat."
Then with admirable skill the mariner selected a bait, and in a twinkling had the hook refurnished.
"I shall be glad to be successful," said Jacky, "as I notice that my cherished companion, Georgie, has obtained the healing weed, and is rapidly returning from the Castle's moat. He will be pleased to find that while he has been in pain I have been enjoying a delightful sport, with no little reward attached to it. ”

“ Look at that one, it's foolish to call it a worm now, ain't it? Now I will take this blue doctor and bait the line for you. See, I run the hook through the head to the hip. That will fetch a mullet. It leaves me half. But you must take a whole one for a codling."
By this time Jacky was standing on the brink of the stage, all impatient to cast his line into the water. The bait, encumbered by some nobs of lead, fell with a jerk into the sea.
"You had better take a seat, young master," said the experienced mariner; "sometimes you get bites by the dozen, at others nothing comes near you for hours. ”

“ Tim Healy has introduced Bill to amend Municipal Franchise in Ireland; wants to carry it through all its stages, and send it on to Lords before Prorogation. "Only a little one," he pleads. Prince Arthur points out if exception made in one case will be claimed in others. Can't oblige Tim.
"Very well," says the Implacable One; "then see what it will cost you. No Bill no holiday, at least not as long as I can stand on floor and raise my voice."
All through the long sitting Tim been to the fore. ”

“ Imagine the drammers a driver gets glimpses of! Peeps through town-winders, too! Tell you, it's magic,
The way we spot mysteries, caught through a curtain, cock-eyed, from our perch nigh the second-floor level,
In spins through back streets, or the sububs. The world and the flesh, my dear Sir,—with a dash of the d——l!
Me and my fares, and my mates on the Rank, make a pretty big world. To a man as loves 'osses,
A Cabby's life isn't arf bad on the whole, spite of bilks and bad weather, hard bosses and losses. ”

“ To complain of the smell of drains at the bar at a time when the British electorate have, by overwhelming majorities, declared against any tampering with The Trade interests, is too much from a man who has shared in the benefit derived on our side by the wholesome current of public opinion. ”

“ They are bright, intelligent boys, full of high spirits, and yet gifted with an amount of common sense much in advance of their comparatively tender years. Georgie Barnwell is generous to a fault. He will borrow sixpence of a friend to-day, and give half of it to a beggar to-morrow. His companion, Jacky Rush, is more economical. ”

“ One father, speeding away to Switzerland with his family, read Punch in the train, and scribbled a note in pencil that he wanted to help before going on his holiday, and wrote a cheque for £7—at Dover station."
Then the writer says that many of the contributors to the Fund wanted to know whether Jimmy and Florrie were real children, and concludes with an expression of "heartiest thanks to all concerned." Of course, Jimmy and Florrie are children of the brain, but they are none the less real on that account. They are types of thousands. ”

“ S. P. Wouldn't have mattered much in the good old days before the guv'nor let the shootin' to the brewin' Member. Lords never did a stroke of work after the Twelfth; but these Commoners ain't born and bred among the turnips. Only take the shootin' for the sake of appearances.
F. P. Yes; and I hear that the brewin' fellow's given the first week's sport to three of these New Women.
S. P. Means a bad time for us—blazin' into the brown, and all that. Give me the right kind of sport, I say, and a fly for my money. With these 'prentice hands you never know where you are, don't you know? ”

“ Appetite—Steward—Wandering—The Cigar—Umbrella—Suspicions—Judicial—Interrogation—Evidence—Stowaway—Verdict—Off—Surmise—Lunch—Afloat—Night—Morning—Away—Landing.
Suddenly aware of commencement of what promises to be uncommonly fine and large appetite when it reaches maturity. Happy Thought.—Find steward. Still Happier Thought.—Finding steward, not for the purpose usually associated with calling for that official on a rough day between Dover and Calais. On present occasion only to ask him, when found, the hour of lunch. Somehow he eludes my search. ”

“ Saturday, 1.40 A.M.—Another late sitting, chiefly owing to Truculent Tim. That depressing; but Members wend their way homeward hurt by crueller blow. Will be remembered that in last Session of old Parliament Howard Vincent made great hit. Came down to the House clothed, not only with chastity, but with mats, strips of carpet, brushes, frying-pans, fish-kettles, and other household goods, all, as he said, made in foreign prisons. Those present during sitting will never forget curious illusion of caudal appendage occasioned by accident of handle of one of the frying-pans, thrust in hon. ”