ent a queer touch of comic opera to the
scene. The garden was so small, the men in their little hats were so
suggestive of the "broken English" scene on the stage, that one could
only stand and laugh.

[Page Heading: A BELGIAN DINNER-PARTY]

The Joos family are quite a study, and so kind. On Christmas Eve I dined
with them, and they gave me the best of all they had. There was a
pheasant, which someone had given the doctor (I fancy he is a very small
practitioner amongst the poor people); surely, never did a bird give
more pleasure. I had known of its arrival days before by seeing
Fernande, the little girl, decorated with feathers from its tail. Then
the good papa must be decorated also, and these small jokes delighted
the whole family to the point of ecstasy.

On Christmas Eve Monsieur Max conceived the splendid joke, carefully
arranged, of presenting Madame Joos--who is young and pretty--and the
doctor with two parcels, which on being opened contained the child's
umbrella and a toy gun. There wasn't even a comic address on the
parcels; but Yrma, the servant, carefully trained for the part, brought
them in in fits of delight, and all the family laughed with joy till the
tears ran down their cheeks. As they wiped their eyes, they admitted
they were sick with laughter. After supper we had the pianola, played by
papa; and I must say that, when one can get nothing else, this
instrument gives a great deal of pleasure. One gets a sort of ache for
music which is just as bad as being hungry.

_27 December._--Bad, bad weather again. It has rained almost
continuously for five weeks. Yesterday it snowed. Always the wind blows,
and _something_ lashes itself against the panes. One can't leave the
windows open, as the rooms get flooded. It is amazingly cold o' nights,
I can't sleep for the cold.

We have some funny incidents at the station sometimes. A particularly
amusing one occurred the other day, when three ladies in knickerbockers
and khaki and badges appeared at our soup-kitchen door and announced
they were "on duty" there till 6 o'clock. I was not there, but the scene
that followed has been described to me, and has often made me laugh.

It seems the ladies never got further than the door!
Some people might have been firm in the "Too sorry!
Come-some-other-day-when-we-are-not-so-busy" sort of way. Not so Miss
----. In more primitive times she would probably have gone for the
visitors with a broom, but her tongue is just