To keep a check on hand and brain,
Lest you exceed
Your Union's limit in respect of speed.

For homes a homeless people cries,
But you've a principle at stake;
Though fellow-workers, lodged in styes,
Appeal to you for Labour's sake
To fill their lack,
Shall true bricklayers waive their Right to Slack?

Never! You'll lay what bricks you choose,
And let the others waste their breath,
These myriads, ranged in weary queues,
Who desperately quote _Macbeth_:--
"Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be he that first cries 'Hold, enough'!"

Your high profession stands apart;
By years of toil you've learned the trick
(Like PHEIDIAS with his plastic art)
Of slapping mortar on a brick;
Touched too the summit
Of science with your lore of line and plummet.

And none may join your sacred Guild,
Save only graduates (so to speak),
Experts with hod and trowel, skilled
In the finesse of pure technique:
And that is why
No rude untutored soldier need apply.

O.S.

* * * * *

KING'S REGULATIONS, PARA. 1696.

I have been in the Army for over five years; I have wallowed in
Flanders mud; I have killed thousands of Huns with my own hand; I have
seen my friends resume the habiliment of gentlemen and retire to a
life of luxury and ease; and yet I am still in the Army.

I am informed that I am indispensable and that, although I shall be
allowed to go in due course, the fate of the nation depends on my
sticking to my job for a short time more. It would be against the best
interests of discipline for me to tell you what my job is.

Last week I yearned for a civilian life and decided that not only
would I leave the Army but immediately and in good style.

I laid my plans accordingly and proceeded to Mr. Nathan's. There for
the expenditure of a few shillings I purchased the necessary material
for my guile.

I retired to my office, that is the desk that I sit at in a room with
two other officers, and I armed myself with a file which would act as
a passport to the Assistant of a Great Man, who in turn is Assistant
to a Very Great Man. They all reside at the War Office. I went there
and was conducted to the Assistant of the Great Man. Everything was
proceeding according to plan.

I found him, after the manner of Assistants, working hard. He did
not look up, so I laid my file before him. It was entitl