regret is flung.

Flaming parrots and pink flamingoes,
Birds of Paradise, frail as fair;
Monkeys talking a hundred lingoes,
Ring-tailed lemur and Polar bear--
Somehow our grief was not profound
When they passed to the Happy Hunting Ground;
Deer and ducks and yellow dog dingoes
Croaked, but we did not care.

But you--ah, you were our pride, our treasure,
Care-free child of a kingly race.
Undemonstrative? Yes, in a measure,
But every movement replete with grace.
Whiles we mocked at the monkeys' tricks
Or pored apart on the apteryx;
These could yield but a passing pleasure;
Yours was the primal place.

How our little ones' hearts would flutter
When your intelligent eye peeped out,
Saying as plainly as words could utter,
"Hurry up with that Brussels-sprout!"
How we chortled with simple joy
When you bit that impudent errand-boy;
"That'll teach him," we heard you mutter,
"Whether I've got the gout."

Fairest, rarest in all the Zoo, you
Bound us tight in affection's bond;
Now you're gone from the friends that knew you,
Wails the whaup in the Waders' Pond;
Wails the whaup and the seamews keen a
Song of sorrow; but you, Georgina,
Frisk for ever where warm winds woo you,
There, in the Great Beyond.

ALGOL.

* * * * *

[Illustration: TECHNICALITIES OF DEMOBILISATION.

_Officer_. "WHAT ARE THESE MEN'S TRADES OR CALLINGS, SERGEANT?"
_Sergeant_. "SLOSHER, SLABBER AND WUZZER, SIR."]

* * * * *

A CONTRA APPRECIATION.

LORD NORTHCLIFFE has recently contributed a remarkably outspoken
criticism of Mr. LLOYD GEORGE by way of "send-off" to his latest
journal, _The New Illustrated_. The following extracts from an article
about to appear in _The Pacific Monthly_, kindly communicated to us by
wireless, seem to indicate that the PREMIER is indisposed to take it
lying down:--

"In a letter recently published without my authority I said that I
was unable to control or influence him. This was true at the time and
remains true now. Time and again have efforts been made to harness
his energies to the State, but they have never succeeded. The
responsibilities of office are irksome to his imperious temperament.
There is something almost tragic in a figure, equipped with the
qualities of an hereditary autocrat, endeavouring to accommodate
himsel