A Knight on Wheels

ith's elaborately ill-spelt epistles required time for their composition, and each, of course, had to be copied out by hand, for it was not to be supposed that the Smiths possessed a typewriter. So when after breakfast Uncle Joseph

of right and wrong. But during the past few days something very big had been stirring within him. Some people would have called it the voice of conscience-that bugbear of our otherwise happy childhood. Others would have said with more truth that it was Heredity struggling with Environment. As a matter of fact it was the instinct of Chivalry, which,

newly awakened heart of this small knight of ours rebelled against the idea of imposing upon a woman. Philip felt that Uncle Joseph must be wrong about women. They could not be what he thought them-at least, not all of them. And even if Uncle Joseph

be so good as to consent to become his sisters, or as an alternative send a postal order by return. But he was loyal to the hand that fed him and to the man who had been h

k of blue cotton frocks simultaneously. In copying out the last letter, Philip, owing to the fact that

ifficulty in piercing its disguise as a small tobacconist's shop. Now Philip, instead of writing out this address at the head of the sheet of dingy Silurian notepaper upon which T. Smith was accustomed to conduct his correspondence, absent-mindedly wr

fastened it up in the last envelope

ittle

live

Broad

bley

nt

eries, was groping blasphemously in the copper for the bluebag. Washing-day was James Nimmo's day of humiliation. Uncle Joseph had offered more than once to have the work sent out to a laundry, but James Nim

hat he was going out to the post, took up the letters and his cap an

diligently scouring Hampstead Heath in search o

handkerchief into a moist ball and stuffing it into her pocket

d up on the g

doing since I saw you last

ilip, rather reluctantly. He was not anxiou

her head with an air of great wisdom. "

d you te

out his not liking women; and I

nterested. Of late he had been giving this

great care, "that there was probably only one woman in the worl

mean?" enquired

however youthful, who sets out to unfold the mysteries of the heart to a member of the

y to hear him talk about them to know that. He thinks they are an incu-incu-something. Anyhow, it means a heavy burden. They

t them," replied Peggy shrewdly. "Men change with disa

red Philip respectfully. Such

," explained Peggy, "after Father

ed. Here was

e been disappointed?" he

inted," said Peggy. "You can be disappointed about

said P

self? Wanting to go to a party, and not being

But I didn't know grown-up people could be disappointed ab

tion, beneath the splendid summer sun of incipient manhood. Most of us cherish the same illusion; and the day upon which we first realise that quarrels and reconciliations, wild romps and reactionary dumps, big generous impulses and little ac

s of the situation, shake ourselves together, and hobble on cheerfully enough. In time this cheerfulness is increased by the acquisition of two priceless pieces of knowledge; on

it becomes to adapt ourselves to new conditions. Many a woman, for instance, passes from twenty years of happy childhood straight into twenty years of happy womanhood and motherhood without speculating very deeply as to whether she is happy or not. Then, perhaps

re the feeble folk, perpetually asking Why, and never finding out. Still, they al

is possible for grown-up people to suffer disappointment in two departments of l

r disappointed, exa

me time. He called the other ones 'wolf-scarers,' because he said there was a wolf outside on the Heath that wanted to get i

, then, of course," p

in acknowledgment of h

ctures to frighten the wolves with really: he sold them. But he never sold the big picture. He went on working at it and working at it for years and years. He began befo

was it?" enquired Phil

big picture,"

w b

cons

last. "It was called 'The Many-Headed.' Father someti

was it

w quite round wi

a great enormous giant, with heads, and heads,

The Many-Headed,'" observed Philip sap

de open, shouting. Dad kept on putting new ones in. There always seemed to be room for one more. Like sticking roses in

hy

Heath-to study the Canal, he

on the subject of London geography, announced f

he said. "Besides, why

y's turn to

Dad would sketch them when they weren't looking, and then put them into the picture. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the giant had great huge hands, and he w

disappointment

studio, and there was Father. He was sitting very quiet and still on a little stool in front of the picture. He never moved, or looked round, or said 'Go away!'

ink. 'There are eight years of a man's life in that picture-eight years of a man's body and blood and bones! And it has been sent back-sent back, by a parcel o

t I thought he would never leave off. At last he stopped, and made a queer noise in his throat, and said: 'No, we won't do that. I will show you a more excellent way.' He said that two or three times over, like he did before. Then he got up, and went and

, the chord of destruct

it at last. When we had slashed the picture all to bits, Dad tore it out of its frame and rolled it up into a bundle and threw it into a corner. Then he went out for a long wal

more pictures?" asked Phili

ts wolf-scarers now. I

ows rose, desp

s wolf-scarers 'pot-boilers' sometimes: I don't know why.) And I said: 'Well, I think it would be nice to have a picture of a little girl in a lovely frock with a new doll, showing it round the doll's house and introduc

ip announced that he must go, for Uncle Joseph would return at four o'c

me? I couldn't help wonderin

" enquired Pe

his questio

all frame stiff

y such thing," she anno

oving, had the sense to withdraw the imputa

a little bit," admi

matter?" asked

a noise. I was only singing, but he is in one of his ba

prise, found himself tr

n?" he asked betwee

e to make allowances for them. I always try to remember that. The daily work of half the wo

night,

he gathering gloom, turning to wa

heart yet another (and quite unsuspected) as

des to every ques

on was proc