nteresting people should not
coincide! But with the assistance of my beloved OLIVER LODGE I have
had many conversations with him. Our first opened in this manner:--

MARGOT. Do you take any interest in current English politics?

NAPOLEON. _Oui_ (Yes).

MARGOT. What do you think of LLOYD GEORGE?

NAPOLEON. An opportunist on horseback.

MARGOT. I love riding too. I met most of my friends in the
hunting-field. You should have seen me cantering into the hall of our
town mansion. Who do you think our greatest statesman?

NAPOLEON. ASQUITH beyond a doubt.

Both PLATO and JULIUS CAESAR, whom my beloved OLIVER has also
introduced to me, said the same thing.

E. V. L.

* * * * *

FLOWERS' NAMES.

SOLOMON'S SEAL.

Oh, lordly was KING SOLOMON
A-stepping down so proud,
With his negro slaves and dancing girls
And all his royal crowd;
His peacocks and his viziers,
His eunuchs old and grey,
His gallants and his chamberlains
And glistening array.

Oh, blithesome was KING SOLOMON
That burning summer day
When lo! a humble shepherdess
Stood silent in his way;
Then stepped down kingly SOLOMON,
And proud and great stepped he,
And there he kissed the shepherdess--
Kissed one and two and three.

Then proudly turned the peasant-maid--
Pale as a ghost was she--
"For all ye are KING SOLOMON,
What make ye here so free?"
Oh, lordly laughed KING SOLOMON,
"Shalt be my queen," quoth he;
"These kisses pledged KING SOLOMON
And sealed him to thee."

Then on went splendid SOLOMON
And all his glittering band,
And the wondering white peasant-girl
He led her by the hand;
But in that place sprang flower-stems
All green, for kingly pride,
With the small white kisses hanging down
With which he sealed his bride.

* * * * *

SQUATTERS.

Ursula came into the study, carrying something that had once been a
photograph, but which the ravages of time had long since reduced to a
faded and almost indecipherable problem.

"Dear," she said, "you know this portrait of Clara's boy, the one
in the sailor suit, from my writing-table? I was looking at it just
now----"

I interrupted her (it really was one of my rushed mornings). "I've
been looking at it any time these fifteen years," I observed bitterly,
"watching it become every day more and more fly-blown and like nothin