[Illustration: "SORRY, MUM, BUT I'M AFRAID YOU'LL 'AVE TER STAY
UPSTAIRS 'COS THE AFFILIATED SOCIETY OF PIANNER-SHIFTERS 'AS CALLED A
GENERAL STRIKE THIS MINNIT."]

* * * * *

NEW BREAD FOR OLD.

["New Bread Again"--"Loaves of Any Shape."--_Headlines from a
Daily Paper_.]

As I walked forth in Baker Street
As sober as a Quaker,
Whom did I have the luck to meet?
I met a jolly Baker.
His voice was gay, his eye was bright,
His step was light and airy,
His face and arms were powdered white--
I think he was a fairy;
He danced beneath the April moon,
And as he danced he trolled
Wild snatches of an ancient rune,
Yet all the burden of his tune
Was "New--Bread--for Old!"

Quoth I: "Whence got you, lad, a heart
So glad that you must show it?"
Quoth he: "The Baker hath his art
No less, Sir, than the Poet;