ading me to believe that "_Sehr
gute Bilde_" meant "Very good picture." Then I pinned it up on the
wall and went in search of Joshua.

"Do you remember that dug-out we used two years ago?" I asked when I
had found him.

"I do," said Joshua. "It was there that I told old Turnips I was
called Joshua after the O.C. Israelites at Jericho."

"That's the place," said I. "It's somewhere round here." And I led him
unostentatiously in the right direction.

"There it is," he cried. "It all comes back to me. Got a flash-lamp?"

He disappeared below and I sat down and waited--waited for sounds of
astonishment and joy from the bowels of the earth. But I waited in
vain. Silence reigned. Then Joshua's head was thrust upwards.

"Biermeister!" he called. "You, Biermeister of the 3rd Prussian Guard,
come away below here! There is one, Sir Joshua Reynolds, an artist,
would have a word with you."

I shook my head sadly. Another of my little jokes had proved a dud.
But I did not go below. Joshua is so rough sometimes.

* * * * *

SICCIS OCULIS.

To weep for the fallen who saved us is meet,
But it causes no kind of surprise
That RAMSAY MacDONALD'S and SNOWDEN'S defeat
Has dried many millions of eyes.

* * * * *

[Illustration: PIVOTAL INDUSTRIES.

_Sergeant_. "LET YOUR 'AIR GROW ON SICK LEAVE, 'AVE YER, LITTLE
GOLDILOCKS? THAT AIN'T NO GOOD; YOU'RE TOO LATE TO BE DEMOBILISED FOR
THE PANTOMIMES."]

* * * * *

[Illustration: THAT "DEMOBILISED" FEELING.]

* * * * *

THE WEARY TITAN.

Weary of the labours of war-winning--
Downing mandarins in Downing Street,
Fixing brands of CAIN upon the sinning,
Bingeing up the Army and the Fleet;
Weary of dislodging Kings and Kaisers,
Wearier of his friends than of his foes,
Prompted by his medical advisers
He has wandered South to seek repose.

There to ease his cranial distension
He will lead the simple life, incog.,
Far from international dissension
Or upheavals of the under-dog;
Leaving all unread his weekly _Hansard_,
Studying only novels at his meals,
Leaving correspondence all unanswered,
Deaf to FOCH'S passionate appeals.

There, no longer rashly overtasking
Powers impaired by superhuman strain,
But amid exotic foliage basking,
He will rest his monumental brain,
Till refr