Umbrella in the other, and we dare say it was a very sensible plan
after all, and might have been imitated with success before
Sebastopol. A stout steel Umbrella would offer no contemptible
shelter to a rifleman. This circumstance, too, may throw a light on a
hitherto obscure passage in "Macbeth," where Birnam Wood moves to
Dunsinane--for it is just possible that the soldiers cut down the
branches to serve them as a protection from the rain. We throw out
this as a hint to any enterprising manager.

In Germany, on the other hand, a soldier is--or used to be--strictly
forbidden from carrying an open Umbrella, unless he is accompanied by
a civilian or a lady. A worthy corporal, on one occasion, was sent to
fetch an Umbrella his Major's lady had left at a friend's house, and
at the same time took her lapdog for an airing. On the road home a
violent shower came on, and, to avoid committing a breach of the
regulations, under his arm he tucked the dog, which was contained,
according to his ideas, in both the above categories, put up the
Umbrella, and marched very comfortably to barracks.

With one more characteristic anecdote we will close our budget. One
evening, while Rowland Hill was preaching, a shower came on, and his
chapel was speedily filled with devotees. With that peculiar
sarcastic intonation which none could assume so successfully as
himself, he quietly remarked, "My brethren, I have often heard that
religion can be made a _cloak_, but this is the first occasion
on which I ever knew it could be converted into an _Umbrella_."