Knocked again; no answer; opened door gently; beheld strange sight.  The Patronage Secretary was “giving a back” to the FIRST LORD of the TREASURY.  OLD MORALITY, taking running jump, cleared it with surprising agility considering AKERS-DOUGLAS’S inches.  Then he trotted on a few paces, folded his arms and bent his head; Financial Secretary to Treasury, clearing AKERS-DOUGLAS, took OLD MORALITY in his stride, and “tucked in his tuppenny” in turn.

Thought I had better retire.  Seemed on the whole the proceedings demanded privacy; but OLD MORALITY, catching sight of me, called out, “Come along, TOBY!  Only our little game.  Fall in, and take your turn.”

Rather afraid of falling over, but didn’t like to spoil sport; cleared OLD MORALITY capitally; scrambled over AKERS-DOUGLAS; but couldn’t manage JACKSON.

“I can’t get over him,” I said, apologetically.

“No,” said AKERS-DOUGLAS, “he’s a Yorkshireman.”

“’Tis but a primitive pastime,” observed OLD MORALITY, when, later, we sat down to dinner; “but remarkably refreshing; a great stimulant for the appetite.  Indeed,” he added, as he transferred a whole grouse to his plate, “I do not know anything that more forcibly brings home to the mind the truth underlying the old Greek aphorism, that a bird on your plate is worth two in the dish.”

I gathered in conversation that when business gets a little heavy, when time presses, and leisure for exercise is curtailed, OLD MORALITY generally has ten minutes leap-frog before dinner.

“We used at first to play it in the corridor; an excellent place; apparently especially designed for the purpose; but we were always liable to interruption, and by putting the chairs on the table here we manage well enough.  It’s been the making of me, and I may add, has enabled my Right Hon. friends with increased vigour and ease to perform their duty to their QUEEN and Country.  The great thing, dear TOBY, is to judiciously commingle physical exercise with mental activity.  What says the great bard of Abydos? Mens sana in corpore sano, which being translated means, mens—­or perhaps I should say, men—­should incorporate bodily exercise with mental exercitation.”

Of course I did not disclose to the Member for Sark, what had taken place in the privity of OLD MORALITY’s room.  That is not my way.  The secret is ever sacred with me, and shall be carried with me to the silent tomb.  But I was much impressed with the practical suggestions of my esteemed Leader, and allured by their evident effect upon his appetite.

“Men,” continued the Member for Sark, moodily, “do all kinds of things in the Recess to make up for the inroads on the constitution suffered during the Session.  They go to La Bourboule like the MARKISS and RAIKES; or they play Golf like Prince ARTHUR; or they pay visits to their Mothers-in-law in the United States, like CHAMBERLAIN and LYON PLAYFAIR; or they go to Switzerland, India, Russia, Australia, and Sierra Leone.  Now if we had a garden, which we dug, and weeded, and clipped, and pruned ourselves, never eating a potato the sapling of which we had not planted, watered, and if necessary grafted, with our own hands, we should live happy, healthful lives for at least a month or two, coming back to our work having renewed our youth like the rhinoceros.”