All was interest and excitement—no, not all. Within ten yards of our resting place browsed placidly an apathetic donkey. When the gaudy, flapping, unknown giant fell down from the heavens at his very hoofs, this intelligent animal went on grazing. The idea that something unusual was occurring presently penetrated his asinine brain, and he raised his head and looked. Half an hour later, when the balloon was packed up and loaded on the cart that took it to the station, he raised his tail also and brayed long and loud. He was beginning to be astonished at last!
We quickly learnt that we had fallen between Ashwell and Baldock on the borders of the shires of Hertford and Cambridge, and soon we had proof of the proverbial hospitality of the Cambridgeshire folk.
One word in extenuation of my photographs taken from the balloon. Balloon pictures are very often apt to be hazy on account of the diffusion of light from the particles of matter in suspension, when viewed from above, and mine were taken late in the day on an occasion when weeks of drought had heavily laden the air with dust and impurities. The rapid motion of the balloon, moreover, forbade anything but snapshot exposures being attempted.
THE EDITOR'S ESCAPADE.
THE STORY OF A MAN AND A MANUSCRIPT.
By Archibald Eyre.
One sometimes wonders what becomes of those meteoric young men who flash through University firmaments trailing behind them an accumulating tail of honours and other academic distinctions. Do they continue to dazzle onlookers throughout their career, or do they "fizzle out" at an early age?
If the fates had been less kind, it is conceivable that Hubert Didcott might have "fizzled out." That he did not do so may have been due to a piece of luck. While the laurels that crowned his brows were still freshly green, he met a very respectable middle-aged gentleman, who had made an enormous fortune and was turning his attention to literature.
He had recently purchased the Didactic Weekly from the eminent firm of Sholman and Company, publishers, and was understood to be looking out for an editor. Someone introduced him to Hubert Didcott, and they came to terms.