er
so ... I daresay!

[_He strolls into the hotel-garden, and begins to read his
Chief's missive once more, in the hope of deciphering some
faint encouragement between the lines._

FINIS.

* * * * *

A TENNYSONIAN FRAGMENT.

[Illustration]

So in the village inn the Poet dwelt.
His honey-dew was gone; only the pouch,
His cousin's work, her empty labour, left.
But still he sniffed it, still a fragrance clung
And lingered all about the broidered flowers.
Then came his landlord, saying in broad Scotch,
"Smoke plug, mon," whom he looked at doubtfully.
Then came the grocer, saying, "Hae some twist
At tippence," whom he answered with a qualm.
But when they left him to himself again,
Twist, like a fiend's breath from a distant room
Diffusing through the passage, crept; the smell
Deepening had power upon him, and he mixt
His fancies with the billow-lifted bay
Of Biscay, and the rollings of a ship.

And on that night he made a little song,
And called his song "_The Song of Twist and Plug_,"
And sang it: scarcely could he make or sing.

"Rank is black plug, though smoked in wind and rain;
And rank is twist, which gives no end of pain;
I know not which is ranker, no, not I.

"Plug, art thou rank? Then milder twist must be;
Plug, thou art milder; rank is twist to me.
O Twist, if plug be milder, let me buy.

"Rank twist, that seems to make me fade away,
Rank plug, that navvies smoke in loveless clay,
I know not which is ranker, no, not I.

"I fain would purchase flake, if that could be;
I needs must purchase plug, ah woe is me!
Plug and a cutty, a cutty, let me buy."

* * * * *

COMPLICATED CASE.--The other day, an Italian Organ-grinder was
arrested for having shot one GIUSEPPE PIA. "He admitted the charge"
(we quote the _Globe_), "but said the gun went off accidentally."
When a Gentleman "admits the charge" (though indeed it was the other
one who did _that_), how the gun went off seems to be a matter of
secondary importance.

* * * * *

THE NAME AND THE THING.--A vote of thanks to Sir CHARLES RUSSELL,
after his address to the Liberal and Radical Association, was earned
by a Wapping Majority.

* * * * *

A LATTERDAY VALENTINE.

(LEAP YEAR: NEW STYLE.)

(_FROM MISS ANASTASIA JAY, NEW YORK, TO THOMAS, EARL O