Muse--
And how shall man demobilise them all?

Far back, when England was devoid of food,
Men bade me breed the coney and I bought
Timber and wire-entanglements and hewed
Fair roomy palaces of pine-wood wrought,
Wherein our first-bought sedulously gnawed
And every night escaped and ran abroad;
Yet she was lovely and we named her Maud,
And if she ate the primulas, 'twas nought.

The months rolled onward and she multiplied,
And all her progeny resembled her;
They ate the daffodils; they seldom died;
And no one thought of them as provender;
The children fed them weekly for a treat,
And my wife said, "The _little_ things--how sweet!
If you imagine I can ever eat
A rabbit called Persephone, you err."

Yet famine might have hardened that proud breast,
Only that victory removed the threat;
And now, if e'er I venture to suggest
That it is time that some of them were ate,
That Maud is pivotal and costing pounds,
And how the garden is a mass of mounds,
She answers me, on military grounds,
"Peace is not come. We cannot eat them yet."

So I shall steal to yon allotment space
With a large bag of rabbits, and unseen
Demobilise them, and in that fair place
They all shall browse on cauliflower and bean;
There Smith will come on Saturday, and think
That it is shell-shock or disease or drink;
But Maud shall dwell for ever there and sink
A world of burrows in Laburnum Green. A.P.H.

* * * * *

SECRETS OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

"The proceedings yesterday afternoon began punctually at three
o'clock. Lord Robert Cecil sat with the British delegates. M.
Leon Bourgeois sat among the French delegates."--_Manchester
Guardian_.

And not, as might have been thought, _vice versa_.

* * * * *

"A thoroughly capable and energetic man wanted, who will look
after a family concern: Must understand management of 25 acre
farm with 10 cows, about four acres may have to be broken up.
Must be an experienced brewer, capable of mashing 10 times
a week, and taking entire charge of brewing operations with
assistance of unskilled labour. Must be conversant with
licensing laws and requirements, also present restrictions
as applying to brewing; thoroughly understand and superintend
wines and