not so sure that this is quite correct—I mean, I am doubtful if this is just the usual way of putting it. I am not suggesting that I am in any one of these lots; but some people are heaping honours upon my head that I can lay no manner of claim to. People write to me: "The Very Rev.," others "Dear Clerk," a third lot, "The Rev. Dr. Boon, D.D." I am not a D.D.—I think it was Gipsy Smith who said that his divinity did not require any doctoring. Amen, Gipsy. I am no Clerk in Holy Orders. I am not a "very" anything. True, I have been called a fool, and the man who said that would never object if he was forced to put the "very" in front. Why! I am not even an ordained minister. I am only a humdrum medical practitioner in a common or garden South London practice. Over in America, and during the hearing of a certain lawsuit, an old negro was seen to be walking about the court in a very disconsolate fashion, when a man went up to him and asked: "Who are you in this case? Are you the defendant?" The negro turned upon his heel and replied "No, massa, I haven't done nothing to deserve no names like that; and I have engaged a lawyer to do all the defencing needed here. I am the man what stole the chickens."
I am not the man what stole the chickens, and I have engaged no one to speak on my
