EXT."]

* * * * *

EDWARD.

Edward has red hair, a robust appearance, and a free-and-easy way with him.
His free-and-easy way shows itself chiefly in his habit of smiling upon and
waving his hand to all those whom he encounters on his daily walks. He is
talkative at times, but his vocabulary is limited. In my opinion it is
limited to one word, though his mother can distinguish several words, or
says so. She must have a very much keener ear than I have--or a less rigid
regard for the truth.

You will have guessed that Edward is under military age. To be exact, it is
thirteen months since he first saw the light in this troubled world. Not
that the world is a troubled one to Edward; on the contrary.

Edward takes his daily walks in his perambulator upon the sea-front of his
native town. His free-and-easy way has secured him a large circle of
acquaintance there. Elderly gentlemen stop and speak to him, which he
likes, so long as they do not pat his cheek, a habit far too prevalent
among elderly gentlemen. Mothers of other babies are loud in his praises,
though in their hearts they are probably comparing him unfavourably with
their own offspring. Altogether Edward has a cheery life.

Upon a certain day Edward fell in with a very little man--so little,
indeed, that most people would have called him a dwarf. He was walking in
the same direction as Edward, and overtaking him, and Edward waved his hand
and smiled and waved again.

For a while the little man ignored these overtures. But at length he felt
obliged to return them, and remarked to Kate, who propels the perambulator,
"Seems friendly like;" to which Kate replied, "Oh, he always waves to
everyone."

Now the majority of people would have been rather repelled by that remark.
For myself I may say that, though Edward always smiles when we meet, I do
not greatly value it because I know he smiles in the same way upon everyone
else.

But it was not so with the little man. To be classed with "everyone," to be
placed by Edward on an equality with the strong and graceful, sent a warm
glow to his heart.

So Edward, in his free-and-easy fashion, had, like the boy-scouts, done one
good deed that day.

* * * * *

"The system of women and girls acting as field labourers, ploughing and
shepherding, etc., in itself produces a rough state of
society."--_Country Life._

However this roughness is to