school. She asked her class what bird went out of Noah's Ark. The answer was- "Please, miss, it must have been a sparrow." They could not comprehend that any other bird but the smutty sparrow could be found.

In many ways our London children are the sharpest of all classes of children. The friction that they have with other children, and contact with the immense masses exercises their mind and faculties very much above the ordinary, especially the rustic ideas. It has been truly said that "None are so sharp as a London girl or boy, and none so dull as an elderly London man or woman.”

We established most successfully "A Fresh Air Club." It commences each February. All pay an admission fee of 3d., and weekly they have the opportunity of paying in something. When half the required amount (2s. 6d.) is paid up, then they can go into the country. There is also a free list for children of widows, orphans, and such like. The children's holiday fund allot to districts certain numbers to go away. Care is taken to have superintendents in the country, and wherever children are sent.

It requires some little capital to "rigg out" the palefacers. A mother kindly said "It is all very well to charge only five shillings for two or three weeks, and does the children a might of good, but they must have extra things which cost me twenty shillings for my three children."

I have assisted out 3200 in seven seasons, and it surprises me to see the very few extras they do seem to carry a small brown paper parcel, etc.—but on examining some I found extra gowns, trousers, etc., were put on the children so that they might not lose them on the journey. The general cost for those under

fourteen is five shillings a week, and with three or four in a cottage or small farm house, they say it answers

their purpose.

The season of 1891 began in May, and ended in the middle of September. Since our London children are accustomed to the great glare of gas, etc., they get a little frightened at the dark lanes of the country, and the long evenings. It is considered that two weeks by the seaside are equal to three in the country. I give all their choice and it's curious how fastidious and particular these youngsters are. One is much struck with the universality of this most excellent movement. All patronise it, and many a subscription comes from those who are travelling on the Continent, or enjoying themselves by the seaside, and they desire to express their sympathy with their poorer brethren.

were

This year our little friends have been peculiarly unlucky the earlier part of their season was cold, wet and stormy-sometimes out of fourteen days, twelve wet-yet they most completely enjoyed their outing, and on arrival home seemed thoroughly joyous and happy. Our country friends take a real delight in these London children. The gentry generally invite each fresh party to a most bountiful and acceptable feast, and on their return farmers and others load them with fruit, flowers, rhubarb, etc. I lately met a return party at Paddington, and could not make out why a boy should have a string of starlings slung round him. I found out that the farmer where he boarded had killed one, which the lad plucked and ate, saying "how good it The good-natured farmer directly killed a dozen

and gave them to the stunted London boy.

The movement is rolling on steadily, and soon each school or gathering of children will have its "fresh air

M

club." It is a most-needed institution for London; and though last year many thousands were sent away, still, there is every reason to believe that it will soon number its tens of thousands, who will be all greatly benefited by these summer outings.

I am pleased to say that what has proved so beneficial to the rosy-faced children has extended to their parents, elder brothers and sisters. A camp by the seaside was established for lads over sixteen; and last season 2000 were accommodated who vastly enjoyed their semi-military outing, and "A Lads' Brigade" is being formed this winter to carry on the good work done during the summer among these lads. All have the greatest sympathy for girls at business; long hours, close atmosphere, and sometimes unnecessary fault-finding by forewomen, make a fortnight of complete rest and quiet enjoyment at Southend or Eastbourne a most delicious relish. The fee for all over fifteen is generally IOS. 6d. a week, except at the camp, which was only 2s. 6d.

Thus on every side we see the extreme benefit derived from "Fresh Air," and we having so often witnessed its good effects can but most conscientiously urge the extension of this new and most beneficial

movement.

A. STYLEMAN HERRING.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PLEASURES OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

BY E. A. ARMSTRONG, M.A., Cantab., Barrister-at-Law.

SINCE the days when Horace put an exquisite ode in praise of country life into the mouth of a Roman Usurer, hundreds of generations of money getters have toiled in cities vaster than Rome, and infinitely noisier, dirtier, and more unhealthy, to find, like the worthy Alphius, that having reaped their harvest of wealth they have robbed themselves to a large extent of the power, though not of the desire, to enjoy it amidst more tranquil surroundings. They can appreciate the country after a fashion; they pine for it when fogs are thick, or when the sun is hot, and they think of green fields and trees and rivers; but the ability to fully taste all its delights has gone from them; their training has been in another direction, and they find that as the twig was bent so has the tree inclined. They are however of the old school, and they can and do recognize the fact that the force of circumstances which kept them morning, noon, and night breathing the same air among the same sounds and associations has weakened and passed away, while the younger generation benefits by the change. There are to-day hundreds and thousands of young men working for their daily bread, or its more savoury equivalents, in London and other big cities, who are as keen sportsmen and ardent lovers of country life as any who know no

other existence. Railway enterprise has widened the bounds of our suburbs, and those who work by day can rest by night and rise invigorated by country air, while the same air refreshes them when a holiday gives them opportunity for exercise, and the exercise they take is genuine country exercise, which will keep them in athletic trim, and enable them to enjoy a longer holiday to the full when they have time to take it, without fear of the ill-effects of a sudden course of violent exertion. There may be some who, when they have time to leave their work behind them, rush abroad to seek in foreign cities the relaxation which they think they cannot find nearer home. Among those, however, who yearly travel to crowded foreign hotels and unsavoury continental watering places, the idea is gaining ground, and will continue to do so, that if health and pleasure are really their objects, they can find them more surely near home than by wandering in climates to which they are unaccustomed, where the most fashionable spots are thronged with faces they daily see, and perhaps avoid, at home, while those further afield are beyond the reach of the most elementary principles of sanitation. Under such circumstances it not unnaturally strikes a man that after all his own country is the best, and if at the same time he has come to the conclusion that to live in other people's houses during his holiday is to forego the pleasures of a home at the very time when he has leisure to enjoy home life, he begins to consider the matter from a practical point of view.

Having duly done so, the chances are that he visits. one or two or more properties that are in the market, and ends by buying one. He may be influenced by the fact that nowadays he is buying cheaply a commodity which is steadily rising in value from the low point to