What present am I to take to father?
It is this question which moiders our young brains as often as his birthday recurs.

My thoughts are trailing back over all our former gifts to him.

This year we gave him a spectacle-case (he is short-sighted); last year a pocket-book; the year before, an inkstand.

What is there left to give him?
A cigar-case?
He does not smoke.

A hunting-flask?
He has half a dozen.