W.—That is a custom which dates from the most remote antiquity. Pictorial representations of standing charioteers are found on the Assyrian friezes and the Egyptian tombs——
E.—(Stopping her ears.) I will not talk about the Egyptians during play-time. Come, will you drive the cart?
W.—Certainly not.
E.—Then shall we skip? Look, I have a new skipping-rope, which my father gave me last week.
W.—The hemp from which that rope was made was doubtless derived from the flax grown in the province of Ulster, in Ireland, especially in the county of Antrim, of which the principal towns are Belfast, Lisbon, and Carrickfergus.
E.—Oh, bother the county of Antrim and the province of Ulster! I don't care to know where the skipping-rope grew. I want to skip with it.
W.—That is quite a savage instinct; the remarkable agility of the South Sea Islanders——
E.—I won't talk of the South Sea Islanders during play-time. You won't skip, then?
W.—Certainly not.
E.—Then let's be soldiers. I love playing at soldiers.