!
The maidens vowed a bitterer had never yet been seen
At Taunton in the summer.

He lived to gather in the gold--he loved to hear it chink
(Hey-nonny-nonny-no for Taunton in the summer!),
And he could only dream of gold--of gold could only think;
And all the fairies watched him, and they watched him with a wink
At Taunton in the summer.

At last one summer noonday, when the sky was blue and deep
(Hey-nonny-nonny-no for Taunton in the summer!),
They made him heavy-headed as he watched beside his sheep
And all the little Taunton elves came stealing out to peep
At Taunton in the summer.

They opened wide his wallet and they stole the coins away
(Hey-nonny-nonny-no for Taunton in the summer!),
They took the round gold pieces and they used them for their play,
They rolled and chased and tumbled them and lost them in the hay
At Taunton in the summer.

And when they'd finished playing they used all their magic powers
(Hey-nonny-nonny-no for Taunton in the summer!);
The silly shepherd woke and wept, he sought his gold for hours,
And all he found was drifts and drifts of tiny greenish flowers
At Taunton in the summer.

* * * * *

MORE WORK FOR HIS MAJESTY'S JUDGES.

"Potato disease has unfortunately made its appearance in the ----
district, the early and second early crops being seriously attacked.
The late crops are free from disease up to the present, and it is hoped
by judicial spraying to save them."--_Local Paper._

* * * * *

From an interview with the Superintendent of Regent's Park:--

"'People seem surprised,' he said, 'when I tell them that within a few
minutes' walk of Baker Street Station, and the incessant din of
Marylebone Road, such birds as the cuckoo, flycatcher, robin and wren
have reared their young.'"--_Observer._

To hear of the cuckoo bringing up its own family in any circumstances was,
we confess, a little bit of a shock.

* * * * *

"'Idling, my dear fellow!' was Mr. Jerome K. Jerome's decisive answer
to my question: 'What do you most like doing at holiday-time?'

'But if, and only when, I am really driven to exertion, let me have a
horse between my legs, a pair of oars, and a billiard-table, and I ask
nothing more of the gods.'"--_A