citors filing in and filing out of the
Gallery, day by day passing and their Bill "getting no forrarder."
Fortunately in these cases there are two Bills that run concurrently. One
is the legislative measure to which a Member objects; the other the bill of
costs in which these daily attendances at the opening of successive
sittings, this mounting and descending of unsympathetic stairways, are
doubtless duly noted.
_Business done._--Irish Votes in Committee of Supply.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING.]
* * * * *
The POSTMASTER-GENERAL is making heroic efforts to improve the telephone
service. According to the current Post Office Circular the name of the
"Coed Talon" exchange has been altered to "Pontybodkin."
* * * * *
ONCE UPON A TIME.
AVIATION.
Once upon a time there was a little primrose who grew all alone on a sunny
bank. All around her were primroses in clusters, but she was a solitary
flower.
Having no brothers or sisters to talk to and no very near neighbours, she
made a confidant of a bee, who would often sit with her for several minutes
at a time. He was brusque and opinionated, but he was wise too, and, having
wings, knew the world; and she never tired of hearing of his travels.
He told her of gardens where flowers of every kind and sweetness bloomed.
"Not like you," he said--"not wild flowers that no one values, but choice,
wonderful, aristocratic flowers that are picked out of catalogues and cost
money and need attention from a gardener."
"What is a gardener?" the primrose asked.
"A gardener is a man who does nothing but look after flowers," said the
bee. "He brings them water and picks off the dead leaves, and all the time
he is thinking how to make them more beautiful."
"How splendid!" said the primrose.
And the bee told her of the houses in these gardens, with pleasant sunny
rooms, and pictures, and flowers in vases to cheer the eyes of the rich
people who lived there.
"How splendid!" said the primrose again. "I wish I could see it all. I
should love to be in a vase in a beautiful room and be admired by rich
people."
"You're too simple," said the bee. "You haven't a chance. You've got to
stay where you are till you die."
"Why shouldn't I have wings like you?" said the primrose.
"How absurd!" replied the bee as he flew away.
But the next day the primros
|