you should see, as you like enough may,
When tramping the docks for a ship some fine day,
A spanking full-rigger just ready for sea,
And think she's just all that a hooker should be,
Take 'eed you don't ship with a skipper that drinks--
You'd better by half play at fan-tan with Chinks!--
For that'll mean nothing but muddle an' mess,
It may be much more and it can't be much less,
What with wrangling and jangling to drive a man daft,
And rank bad dis-cip-line both forrard and aft,
A ship that's ill-found and a crew out of 'and,
And a touch-and-go chance she may never reach land,
But go down in a squall or broach to in a sea,
For them drunken skippers--they're the devil," says he.

"And if you go further and pause to admire
A ship that's as neat as your heart could desire,
As smart as a frigate aloft and alow,
Her brasswork like gold and her planking like snow,
Look round for a mate by whose twang it is plain
That his home port is somewhere round Boston or Maine,
With a jaw that's the cut of a square block of wood,
And beat it, my son, while the going is good!
There'll be scraping and scouring from morning till night
To keep that brass shiny and keep them decks white,
And belaying-pin soup both for dinner and tea,
For them smart down-easters--they're the devil," says he.

"But if by good fortune you chance for to get
A ship that ain't hungry or wicked or wet,
That answers her hellum both a-weather and lee,
Goes well on a bowline and well running free,
A skipper that's neither a fool nor a brute,
And mates not too free with the toe of their boot,
A sails and a bo'sun that's bred to their trade,
And a slush with a notion how vittles is made,
And a crowd that ain't half of 'em Dagoes or Dutch,
Or Mexican greasers or niggers or such,
You stick to her close as you would to your wife,
She's the sort that you only find once in your life;
And ships is like women, you take it from me,
That, if they _are_ bad 'uns, they're the devil," says he.

C. F. S.

* * * * *

"With regard to prison labour, it is stated that the
manufacture of war stories had continued to employ every
available inmate."

_Christian Science Monitor._

We had wondered where some of them came from.

* * * * *

[Illustration: SOUNDING THE "ALL CLEAR."

WITH GRATEFUL COMPLIMENTS TO THE GA