with honest love. The dresser holds, not only
crockery but also items of decoration: some carved candlesticks, some
photographs in gilt frames, an ornament with a nodding head, kept there
because it always amuses young Emmie's baby when she calls. Everywhere
pride of home is apparent....

When the lady hears a familiar step, she lays _East Lynne_ aside, pokes
up the fire, places a plate in the fender, and a kipper over the
griddle, where it sizzles merrily; for it is wasteful to use the gas
grill when you have a fire going. Then the boys come clumping in, or the
girls come tripping in, and Mother attends them while she listens to
recitals of the days doings in the City. Sometimes the youngsters are
allowed to postpone their tea until the big ones come home; and then
they take a Scramble Tea on the rug before the fire. You take a Scramble
Tea by turning saucers and plates upside down, and placing the butter in
the sugar-basin, the sugar on the bread-board, and the bread, so far as
possible, in the sugar-basin, and the milk in the slop-basin. Taken in
this way, your food acquires a new and piquant flavour, and stimulates a
flagging appetite. Or they lounge against the table, and help themselves
to sly dips in the jam with the handle of a teaspoon, or make predatory
assaults on the sugar-basin.

After tea, the bright boys wash, clean their boots, and change into
their "second-best" attire, and stroll forth, either to a picture palace
or to the second house of the Balham Hippodrome; perchance, if the gods
be favourable, to an assignation on South Side Clapham Common; sometimes
to saunter, in company with others, up and down that parade until they
"click" with one of the "birds." The girls are out on much the same
programme. They, too, promenade until they "click" with some one, and
are escorted to picture palace or hall or chocolate shop. Usually, it is
a picture palace, for, in Acacia Grove, mothers are very strict as to
the hours at which their young daughters shall be in. Half-past ten is
the general rule, with an extension on certain auspicious occasions.

It is a great game, this "clicking"; with very nice rules. However
seasoned the player may be, there are always, in certain districts,
pitfalls for the unwary. The Clapham manner is sharply distinct from the
Blackheath manner, as the Kilburn manner is distinct from that of
Leyton. On Clapham Common, the monkeys' parade is South Side; and the
game is started by strol