k of colour-blindness,
and insist that yellow was white. And when we hit upon the plan of
demanding brown bread, the fellow would argue that yellow was brown!
When black was asked for--well, we did not ask for that. But there was
no option in the matter; the Colonel's prescription had to be accepted.
The sensible course was to try to acquire a taste for it; and we did; we
succeeded--too well!--until at last we could not get _enough_ of the
dough. The unkindest cut of all, however, did not come until pies,
pastry, and sweet cakes of all kinds were pronounced indigestible. The
refined cruelty of this revolutionary decree was bitterly resented; not
only by the confectioners, whose shop windows were works of art, but
also by the public, who loved art. Even gouty subjects and folk with
livers protested. As for the ladies, the war on sponge cakes almost
broke their hearts. Pastry was to many of them a staple sustenance, and
conducive--besides being nice--to a, wan complexion. Five o'clock teas
lost prestige; the tarts were gone. It was a case of Hamlet without the
Prince of Denmark. The propriety of a deputation to the Colonel, to test
his gallantry, was mooted; but the proposal, strange to say, found no
seconder. Meanwhile, he (the Colonel) was on the trail of the butcher
again. Prior to the promulgation of the eight-penny regulation the
butcher had been in his element, charging what he liked, and liking
generally a shilling. The small people in the trade had sold their
cattle to their richer brethren who now made hay in the "ample sunshine"
with great ardour. Their prices, it is true, had been limited by
proclamation; but they still catered for the wealthy classes, and the
"greater number" suffered much in consequence. Some people could get no
meat, and when the Colonel awoke to the situation he suddenly limited
the allowance of each adult to half-a-pound _per diem_. A howl of
indignation followed, and Kekewich was denounced as a "high-handed
vegetarian." To be limited to less meat in a day than a man was
accustomed to "shift" at one meal, was at once "too much" and "too
little." Even this restriction worked badly. Coaches and fours were
driven through the proclamation; the well-to-do got good weight, and the
toiler--shinbone! The system of meat distribution was a source of
trouble to the end.

Friday morning was one to live in our memories, it brought the execrable
hooters again. No pen-picture can be drawn of their effect