to forget is that most people at times are their own Gloomy
Deans: some of us too often; and there can be too much of a good thing.
Hopelessness butters no parsnips and it is a mood not to be encouraged
or the world would be as bad as we then think it. Gloomy-deaniness,
though salutary for brief intervals, should be sparingly indulged in;
but you are at it all the time. There is a Chinese proverb which says,
"If you can't smile don't open a shop;" and, after all, St. Paul's
Cathedral is in a manner of speaking a kind of shop, isn't it?--the
goods, at any rate, should be obtainable there. The phrase "there is no
health in us" does not constitute the whole liturgy. Down with facile
optimists by all means, but, my dear Sir----

E. V. L.

* * * * *

NEW RHYMES FOR OLD CHILDREN.

THE ERMINE.

The ermine is not quite as grand as he sounds;
As a rule he is shot if he comes in the grounds;
You have seen him about by the mulberry-tree,
Though I very much doubt if you knew it was he.

He is shot with a gun and hung up by the throat,
For the ermine, my son, is the same as the stoat;
So when Auntie has got just a little more ermine
You can tell her (or not) she is covered with vermin.

A. P. H.

* * * * *

ANOTHER IMPENDING APOLOGY.

"Col. ---- was unable to be present, and altogether the event
was highly successful."

_Local Paper._

* * * * *

[Illustration: _First Pugilist._ "YOU'RE STANDING ON MY FOOT."

_Second Pugilist._ "WELL, WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE TO DO ABOUT IT?"

_First Pugilist._ "I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT I'LL DO ABOUT IT--FOR A PURSE OF
TEN THOUSAND POUNDS AND THE CINEMA RIGHTS."]

* * * * *

MORE NOTES FROM A SYNTHETIC COUNTRY DIARY.

_November 20th._--I have been much struck this morning by a remarkable
instance of protective mimicry on the part of a grey squirrel, which
assumes attitudes and adopts gestures which at a little distance render
him almost indistinguishable from a small monkey. WHITE'S _Selborne_
throws no light on this strange phenomenon, which I can only explain as
a result on the animal world of the now fashionable _Tarzan_ cult, which
so happily reconciles the old hostility between apes and angels.

Of the habits and customs of the hedgehog mention has already been made
in these notes. It may be added that the whistle which these inte