The Schartz-Metterklume Method

Hector Hugh Munro (1870 – 1916) was a British writer better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro. The biggest population acquired by means of his witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirizing Edwardian society and culture. He is often considered a master of shirt stories and compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and others famous writers. In his turn influenced A. A. Milne, Noel Coward and P.G. Wodehouse.


At a railway station an arrogant and overbearing woman, Mrs Quabarl, mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta, who has been inadvertently left behind by a train, for the governess, Miss Hope, whom she has been expecting. Miss Hope herself erred the date of her arrival. Lady Carlotta decides not to correct the mistake, acknowledges herself as Miss Hope, a proponent of "the Schartz-Metterklume method" of making children understand history by acting it out themselves, and chooses the Rape of the Sabine Women. How will Mrs Quabari respond at "Miss Hope's" new method?