m pleased. He had provided himself with an excellent
khaki campaigning suit, and did not at all like the idea of its lying
idle. However, after some further conversation, Ping Wang succeeded in
convincing him that, for the success of their plans for recovering the
idol, it was necessary that he and Charlie should pass themselves off as
Chinese.

'We shall have to eat our food with chop-sticks I suppose?' Charlie
remarked.

'Certainly,' Ping Wang replied.

'Then lend me yours, and I'll start practising at once. I don't want to
be starved when I get to China.'

Ping Wang lent his chop-sticks willingly, and having obtained some
boiled rice from the cook, Charlie practised getting it into his mouth.
It was an easier task than he had imagined, and when he had become
proficient, he passed the chop-sticks on to Fred, who at once set to
work to become as accomplished as his brother. Long before they arrived
at Hongkong, Fred and Charlie found it as easy to eat with chop-sticks
as with a knife and fork.

(_Continued on page 291._)

ONE WAS MISSING.

Two men once stopped at a French inn, and gave in charge of the
landlady, who was a widow, a bag of money, telling her to give it up to
neither of them unless they were both together. A little while
afterwards one of the men came alone and asked the landlady to give up
the money under the pretence that his companion had to make an important
payment immediately. The widow had paid little attention to what had
been said to her before, and now, forgetting all about it, gave up the
bag. The rogue disappeared with it so quickly that the landlady asked
herself if she had not made a mistake.

The next day the other man turned up, and made the same request as his
comrade had done the previous day, and when the widow told him what had
happened, he went into a passion, and summoned her for the loss of his
money.

Some one who heard of the poor woman's plight advised her to say that
she was ready to bring forth the money on the original terms. She asked
the plaintiff to produce his comrade. The argument was found plausible
by the court, and as the thief took care not to come back, his comrade
had to give up his claim.

W. YARWOOD.

PUSSY'S PLAYMATE.

Many instances of curious animal friendships have been recorded, but not
many are stranger than that which a correspondent of the _Field_ relates
of a kitten and a peacock in his own grounds. The kitten was a half-w