LUMS.

Plums, especially if pickled, are a favourite ration of the Japanese
soldiers. These plums are said to be such marvellous thirst-quenchers
that if you have once tasted them the mere recalling of their name is
sufficient to allay the severest thirst.

There is a saying in the Japanese army that when a regiment shows signs
of being overcome from want of water, the officer in command has only to
say, 'Two miles from here, my men, there is a forest of plum-trees.'

At once, says a Japanese writer, the men's mouths begin to water, and
the danger is past.

X.

THE BOY TRAMP.

(_Continued from page 139._)

I fell asleep at last, and, on opening my eyes the next morning, saw the
sunlight shining into the squalid room. Evidently it had been empty on
my arrival at the house, and Mrs. Loveridge had flung these things on
the floor, and placed a basin and what looked like a duster on a
broken-backed chair, and considered the room furnished. Not aware of the
time, but believing it to be quite early, I got up and said my prayers
and began my toilet, with the intention of going downstairs to explore
the house. Having lain down in my clothes, I now washed as well as I
could without soap, opened my door, went out to the landing, and
listened. All that I could hear was snoring; so, taking courage, I tried
to walk downstairs without noise--a task in which I only partially
succeeded.

Passing the first floor, I went on to the rooms which I had entered
yesterday, and then to the front door. I saw that it was locked, and
that the key, as Mrs. Loveridge had hinted, had been taken away. At the
back of the passage was a flight of stairs, and, in the wild hope of
finding some kind of back door, I went down.

In this basement were two rooms, that in front being an ordinary kind of
kitchen--the door of the back room being locked. I was in the act of
stooping to look through the keyhole, when I felt a hand on my collar.

'Now, get away from that,' cried Mrs. Loveridge, flinging me heavily
against the wall. 'None of your prying down here, or it'll be the worse
for you.'

I returned upstairs without speaking, and there I hung about the room,
where the supper things still remained on the table, until I smelt an
odour of frying bacon. Both the men came to breakfast, and nobody spoke
during the meal. When it ended, Mr. Loveridge left the room, and I heard
him downstairs, opening and shutting the door of the room where I had