hwark Boys,"
strays from the slime-sodden east,
FEGAN takes forth in gay troops to the meadows, in freshness of nature to
frolic and feast,
Climb in the woodlands and plunge in the waters, ramble and scramble
through tangle-hedged lanes,
Fish in the pools with youth's primitive tackle, breathe quickening
vigour through bosoms and brains.
Picture the boys "camping out" on the commons, and gipsying gaily in
tents midst the heather,
Armed with their canvas and blankets and boilers and pannikins well
against hunger and weather.
Picture them--CALLOT'S free brush might have managed it--gathered in
pow-wow around the camp-fire,
Sun-tanned and wind-browned, in picturesque raiment, with wisp of the
wild hop or trail of the briar
Hat-wreathed or button-holed. BURNS should have sung of them;
trim-skirted Muse, with punctilious tastes,
Were not at home with these waifs from the rookery, pastured at large
in free Nature's wild wastes,
Bounding, and breathing fresh air, romping, wrestling, and disciplined
only to cleanness and order.
Otherwise free as the tent-dwelling Arabs, or outlaws of Sherwood, or
bands of the Border.
Picture it! FEGAN'S pink pamphlet _has_ pictured it. Read it, all lovers
of Nature and youth,
All who have care for the wrecks of humanity, all who are moved by the
spirit of ruth.
Ere Spring returns, far Canadian homesteads will house their contingents
of "Nobody's Boys."
Let them take with them kind thoughts of Old England, and memories sweet
of its rare rural joys.
Let them "camp out" once again, by the ocean, and plunge in the billow,
and rove on the sands;
Know the true British brine-whiff by experience. Help, British Public,
their friends' kindly hands.
Good is the work, and the fruit of it excellent; giving poor wastrels a
fair start in life,
Taste of true pleasure, and wholesome enjoyment, aid in endeavour, and
strength for the strife.
What better use for spare cash at this season? Come then, _Punch_
readers, right willingly come!
_Mr. Punch_ knows scarce a cause more deserving, or worthy of aid, than
the Southwark Boys' Home!

_Mem_.--Mr. J.W.C. FEGAN, of the Boys' Home, Southwark, the writer of
the pleasant pamphlet entitled _Camping Out_, makes appeal towards
the expenses of giving "a fortnight's holiday under canvas--_by the
sea, if possible_"--to the waifs and str