glacier and the dark birch-forest.

I know that breed.

A GERM-DESTROYER

Pleasant it is for the Little Tin Gods
When great Jove nods;
But Little Tin Gods make their little mistakes
In missing the hour when great Jove wakes.

As a general rule, it is inexpedient to meddle with questions of
State in a land where men are highly paid to work them out for you.
This tale is a justifiable exception.

Once in every five years, as you know, we indent for a new Viceroy;
and each Viceroy imports, with the rest of his baggage, a Private
Secretary, who may or may not be the real Viceroy, just as Fate
ordains. Fate looks after the Indian Empire because it is so big and
so helpless.

There was a Viceroy once who brought out with him a turbulent Private
Secretary--a hard man with a soft manner and a morbid passion for
work. This Secretary was called Wonder--John Fennil Wonder. The
Viceroy possessed no name--nothing but a string of counties and
two-thirds of the alphabet after them. He said, in confidence, that
he was the electro-plated figurehead of a golden administration, and
he watched in a dreamy, amused way Wonder's attempts to draw matters
which were entirely outside his province into his own hands. 'When we
are all cherubims together,' said His Excellency once, 'my dear, good
friend Wonder will head the conspiracy for plucking out Gabriel's
tail feathers or stealing Peter's keys. _Then_ I shall report him.'

But, though the Viceroy did nothing to check Wonder's officiousness,
other people said unpleasant things. May be the Members of Council
began it; but finally all Simla agreed that there was 'too much
Wonder and too little Viceroy' in that rule. Wonder was always
quoting 'His Excellency.' It was 'His Excellency this,' 'His
Excellency that,' 'In the opinion of His Excellency,' and so on. The
Viceroy smiled; but he did not heed. He said that, so long as his old
men squabbled with his 'dear, good Wonder,' they might be induced to
leave the Immemorial East in peace.

'No wise man has a Policy,' said the Viceroy. 'A Policy is the
blackmail levied on the Fool by the Unforeseen. I am not the former,
and I do not believe in the latter.'

I do not quite see what this means, unless it refers to an Insurance
Policy. Perhaps it was the Viceroy's way of saying. 'Lie low.'

That season came up to Simla one of these crazy people with only a
single idea. These are the men who make thing