r one term to Teach Latin and
History in Upper School, coloris paribus a cricketer would be most
acceptable."--_Provincial Paper._

"_Coloris paribus_" suggests faintly that the authorities hope to get a
double-blue; but it looks as if he would have to spend most of the term in
teaching Latin.

* * * * *

BIRD CALLS.

I.

The lark he trills his song on high,
A tiny speck on a wide blue sky;
"Tira-lir, it's sweet up here,
It's sweet up here, my dear, my dear."

The turtle-dove's in love and so
Is anxious all his world should know
And follow his example too:--
"Look at us two. Oh do, oh do."

Woodpeckers make their thirsty cry
Of "Pluie, pluie, pluie," to a sunlit sky;
But sure enough they have their way
For rain, rain, rain will fall next day.

The blackbird also craves a boon,
Says "Bring a cherry, bring a cherry, soon, soon, soon;"
And there in answer to his call
The cherry blooms on the garden wall.

The thrush of all the birds that sing
Of nests and little wives in Spring
Alone confides the secret way:--
"What does she _line_ it with? Why, clay."

The willow wren she sings a song
Just like her mate, though not so long,
But both sing in all winds and weathers,
"Sing to me; bring to me little brown feathers."

* * * * *

SPRING AT KEW.

I am not one of those who believe in going down to the country to look at
this Spring of which there is so much talk. Wanting in business
organisation and coherent effort, Spring in the country is a poor affair at
the best; there may be half-a-dozen daffodils in flower in one spinney, but
you have to tramp over two or three muddy fields after that to find a
button-hole of primroses, and so onwards over a stile and a ditch to the
place where the blackthorn has blossomed and the green woodpecker is
pecking the greenwood tree.

And very likely there are gates. Judging from statements in novels you
might suppose a gate to be a bright and simple piece of mechanism, swung on
by rosy-cheeked children and easily opened by Lord Hugo with his riding-crop
so that Lady Hermione may jog through it on her practically priceless
bay. That is quite wrong. It rests on the primary fallacy that gates are
meant to be opened, whereas they are really meant to be kept shut. What
actually happens when you want to open one is that you plunge halfway
through a deep quagm