pe is absolutely unlimited. I am enclosing a copy of last
week's _Builder and Architect_, in which you will find some great thoughts
expressed. Pray let Algernon read it. It may be the means of inducing him
to perform great deeds for England's sake."

Another fond parent wrote:--

"Can you advise an anxious mother as to a career for her only son, John
William? He is at present eight and a-half years old, has blue eyes and
fair hair and is a perfect darling, so good and obedient, but he is firmly
resolved to be a lift-man when he grows up."

I answered her soothingly thus:--

"John Willie is rather young to have made a final decision, I think. Let
his youthful aspirations run through the usual stages, liftman, engine-
driver, bus-conductor, sailor, etc. At fifteen or so he will have left
these behind, and for the next few years will probably settle down to the
idea of being nothing in particular, or else a professional cricketer. Then
he will suddenly, for good or evil, make his choice. Neither his blue eyes
nor his fair hair give any clue as to what that choice will be, but I
should let him keep both, as they may be useful to him.

"If he should determine upon a career involving manual work, I should take
steps to have him initiated into the Art and Mystery of Bricklaying. At the
rate we are moving the working-hours would probably be about eight per
week, with approximately eight pounds per day salary, by the time he
arrives at bricklaying maturity.

"It is difficult to say yet whether he would have to graduate in Commerce
before being eligible, but probably it would be necessary, as the best
bricklayers, I'm told, always carry a mortar-board, and there is a sort of
caucus in these plummy professions nowadays that is anxious to keep
outsiders from joining their ranks. But the country needs bricklayers, and
will go on needing them for years. Let John Willie step forward when he is
old enough."

To the mother who asked if I considered that her youngest boy would be well
advised to adopt the Housebreaking profession I wrote:--

"To which part of this profession do you refer? If to the Burgling branch I
would ask, 'Has he the iron nerve, the indomitable will, above all has he
the brain power for this exacting craft? Can he stand the exposure to the
night air, the exposure before an Assize jury, and the rigours of the
Portland stone quarries?' If so, let him take a course of illustrated
lectures at the cinema.

"If