Serpent up a tree,
Sniffing the virgin breezes;
Till EVE (the huzzy!), one fine day,
With evil purpose came his way,
And led that simple worm astray
By low and wicked wheezes.

A Wolf there was, quite sweet and good,
Till in his path Red Riding-Hood
Went camouflaging through the wood--
A brazen little terror;
Large teeth she had and bulgy eyes
And told the most amazing lies,
And taught him, in a flowery guise,
The downward route to error.

Of Fritz's nature, fresh as morn,
Pure as a babe that's just been born,
Clean as a poodle lately-shorn,
These are symbolic samples;
The Wolf unversed in specious vice,
The Serpent with a taste as nice
As anything in Paradise--
Debauched by bad examples.

England seduced us. 'Neath her spell,
Mistress of lies, we fell and fell
Into the poisoned sink, or well,
Of faked and fabulous rumour;
And there, as we were bound to do,
We failed, because we loved the True,
And loathed the False as alien to
Our artless German humour.

I speak as one who ought to know;
Myself I tried a trick or so
In U.S.A. and had to go,
Looking absurdly silly;
And now against us, big with fate,
That Hemisphere has thrown its weight,
Both North and South (though up to date
We haven't heard from Chili).

Laughter we've earned--a noble shame!
Built to achieve a higher aim,
We honest Huns can't play the game
Of shifty propaganders;
Henceforth we'd better all get back
On to the straight and righteous track
And help our HINDENBURG to hack
(If not too late) through Flanders.

O.S.

* * * * *

"Red heels were much in evidence, both Lady D---- and Lady C----
affected them, and they were to be seen in other unexpected
places."--_Observer_.

Certainly their use as ornaments in the small of the back surprised us
a good deal.

* * * * *

THE CARP AT MIRAMEL.

[In the following article all actual names, personal, geographical
and regimental, have been duly camouflaged.]

The carp that live in the moat of the Chateau de Miramel (in the zone
of the armies in France) are of an age and ugliness incredible and
of a superlative cynicism. One of them--local tradition pointed to a
one-eyed old reprobate with a yellow face--is the richer these hundred
years past by an English peeress's diamond ring.

From