The Toys Of Peace

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.


The story tells about young mom who prefers to hide and not to give her young sons toy soldiers or toy guns. She instructs her brother to bring them innovative "peace toys" as an Easter present. When the packages are opened young Bertie shouts "It's a fort!" and is disappointed when his uncle replies "It's a municipal dustbin." The boys are initially baffled as to how to obtain any enjoyment from models of a school of art and a public library, or from little figures of John Stuart Mill, Felicia Hemans and Sir John Herschel. Youthful inventiveness finds a way, however, as the boys combine their history lessons on Louis XIV with a lurid and violent play-story about the invasion of Britain and the storming of the Young Women's Christian Association.