Let us hope they will soon come to.

* * * * *

[Illustration: HOW TO UTILISE OUR SKILLED CRAFTSMEN.

_First Lieutenant._ "WHAT WAS THIS MAN BEFORE HE JOINED?"

_Petty Officer._ "OPTICIAN, SIR."

_First Lieutenant._ "WHAT HAD WE BETTER GIVE HIM TO DO?"

_Petty Officer._ "THERE'S THEM PRISMATIC SPOTTING GLASSES, SIR. THE
LEATHER STRAP IS BROKEN OFF THEM. HE COULD SPLICE IN A PIECE O' COD
LINE."]

* * * * *

_LE POILU DE CARCASSONNE._

THE _poilus_ of France on the Western Front are brave as brave can be,
Whether they hail from rich Provence or from ruined Picardie;
It's the self-same heart from the lazy Loire and the busy banks of Seine,
Undaunted by perpetual mud or cold or gas or pain;
And all are as gay as men know how whose wealth and friends are gone,
But the gayest of all is a little white dog that came from Carcassonne.

He was brought as a pup by a _Midi_ man to a sector along the Aisne,
But his man laid the wire one pitch-black night and never came back again.
The pup stood by with one ear down and the other a question mark,