"Well, my dears," said Mr. Punch, laughing, "never mind about what you might have been doing. The important thing is what you are doing, and when I think of that it makes my eyes glisten, I am so proud of you. Perhaps now and then in the past I may have been a little chaffing about some of your foibles, and even about some of your aspirations; but I never doubted how splendid you were at heart; I never for a moment supposed you would be anything but ready and keen when the hour of need struck. And I was right, bless your spirited hearts! I was right. For here you are, filling the men's places, so that they can be the more free to go and fight for us, and doing it all smilingly and cleverly as though you'd never done anything else. I think it's magnificent. I'm an old man and I've seen a great many things in my time, but I've never seen anything better or anything that gave me more pleasure."
"Oh, no, Mr. Punch," said one of the new citizens--rather a pretty one, too--"you're not really old."
"No! no!" cried the others. "You're very kind and sweet," said Mr. Punch, "but you're wrong. I am old, very old--in fact just three quarters of a century old; and in proof of that let me hand you my
PARTRIDGE, BERNARD. Armlets and the Man, 201 Blow for the Crescent (A), 137 Challenge (The), 89 Champion, of the Smaller Nations (The), 281 Crack or Doom (The), 31 For Traitors, 233 Gallipoli--and After, 51 Golden Moment (The), 345 His Bark is on the Sea, 185 Injured Innocence, 361 Job's Discomforter, 121 Lost Chief (The), 391 Man that broke the Back of Montenegro (The), 71 New Damocles (The), 313 New Edge (The), 11 New Frightfulness (The), 153 Question of the Hour (The), 169 Repudiation (The), 265 Shadow on the Wall (The), 409 Something to go on with, 329 "Steam-Roller" (The), 425 To the Glory of France, 217 Wanted--a St. Patrick, 297 Willing Victim (A), 249 Without Prejudice, 377
RAVEN-HILL, L. Another Conscientious Objector, 195 Dual Control, 131 For Neutrals. For Natives, 43 German Holiday (A), 105 Grapes of Verdun (The), 243 Held!, 355 Judgment of Paris (The), 419 Junior Partners (The), 179 Love me, love my Pig, 259 Marks of the Beast (The), 211 May 7, 291 Military Reason (The), 147 Pro Patria, 63 Puffing Billy, 339 Rush to Salonika (The), 3 Saint Valentine's Day in the Fatherland, 115 Second Time of Asking (The), 23 Serbia Comes Again, 275 Sinking, 83 Tables Turned (The), 403 Unconscious Candour, 387 Under Government Patronage, 323 Wait and See, 227 Wake up, England, 307 Who Pays?, 163