d then they fluttered to the walls
Where coloured birds and roses are.

I watched them darting in and out,
I watched them gaily climb and cling,
While all the roses moved about
And all the birds began to sing.

And when it was no longer light
I felt them up my pillows creep,
And there they sat and sang all night--
I heard them singing in my sleep.

R.F.

* * * * *

ANOTHER SEX PROBLEM.

"From Lord Rosebery's herd at Mentmore, Mr. Ross got a show cow
of the Lady Dorothy family, giving every appearance of being a
great milker and a tip-top bull calf."--_Aberdeen Free Press_.

* * * * *

From a German _communique_:--

"Our naval forces had encounters with Russian destroyers and
gungoats north of Oesel."--_Westminster Gazette_.

The Russian reply to the ewe-boats, we suppose.

* * * * *

"Kugelmann, Ludwig, of Canterbury Road, Canterbury, grocer, has
adopted the name of Love Wisdom Power."--_Australian Paper_.

Who said the Germans had no sense of humour?

* * * * *

[Illustration: BURGLAR BILL.

THE POTSDAM PINCHER. "SURELY YOU AIN'T ASKIN' ME TO GIVE UP MY SWAG
ARTER ALL THE TROUBLE I'VE HAD GETTIN' IT, AN' ALL THE VALIBLE BLOOD
I'VE SPILT."]

* * * * *

THE MUD LARKS.

The Babe went to England on leave. Not that this was any new
experience for him; he usually pulled it off about once a
quarter--influence, and that sort of thing, you know. He went down to
the coast in a carriage containing seventeen other men, but he got a
fat sleepy youth to sit on, and was passably comfortable. He crossed
over in a wobbly boat packed from cellar to attic with Red Tabs
invalided with shell shock, Blue Tabs with trench fever, and Green
Tabs with brain-fag; Mechanical Transporters in spurs and stocks, jam
merchants in revolvers and bowie-knives, Military Police festooned
with _pickelhaubes_, and here and there a furtive fighting man who had
got away by mistake, and would be recalled as soon as he landed.

The leave train rolled into Victoria late in the afternoon. Cab touts
buzzed about the Babe, but he would have none of them; he would
go afoot the better to see the sights of the village--a leisurely
sentimental pilgrimage. He had not covered one hundred yards when
a ducky little thing pranced up to