ch rises two hundred and nineteen feet above sea-level,
where the air is usually clear and bright, whilst the view over London
is very fine. The hill is the property of Eton College, and is separated
from the Zoo by the Regent's Canal, as well as by the Albert Road.
Beneath the slope is a fine gymnasium, which still further adds to the
attractions of the park, and many fine terraces of houses line the outer
circles.

The park takes its name from the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV.

HELENA HEATH.

NEVER CAUGHT IT.

'He is always very busy,' said one man to another.

'Yes,' answered a gentleman who knew the person in question. 'He is so
lazy in getting up that he loses an hour every morning, and spends all
the rest of the day in running after it.'

An hour lost means an hour which can only be regained by neglecting
other work.

RAT-SKINS.

The Japanese are a wonderful people, and their foresight in even the
smallest matters is really marvellous. Here is a case in point.

Late in 1904, when the time came to forward the winter outfits for their
soldiers fighting in Manchuria, amongst the wadded overcoats and thick
blankets were some hundreds of thousands of ear-protectors made out of
rats' skins.

Even the military authorities were surprised by these, and wondered
where the Government could have found so many rats as to be able to
supply their soldiers with such soft and comfortable coverings for their
ears.

It seems that two years ago plague was raging along the China coast,
and, to keep the disease out of Japan, the quarantine authorities made
war against the rats. In all the seaports and larger cities rewards were
offered for each rat brought; small boys found this a delightful way of
earning money, and the competition at once became very keen.

Every rat was duly registered, and the place where it was caught noted,
and if any suspicious germs were found, the building from which the rat
came was raided, all the rats in it hunted down, and the place
disinfected. So the plague was kept out of Japan.

Meanwhile the rat-skins had not been thrown away; war was even then
threatening, and ear-protectors _might_ be wanted.

So the rat-skins were all thoroughly cleansed and disinfected, and made
into ear-protectors, and now have proved a great blessing to the
soldiers in the field.

THE OLD CLOCK.

None of my early recollections of our pretty little home in England is
so clear a