The law of the land may the petty appal.
But frighten the Rover? Oh no, not at all!
And ne'er to Commissions or Colonels I'll yield,
Whilst there's Black Tyne to back me or Whitehall to shield.
Unfurl the Black Flag! shake its folds to the wind!
And I'll warrant we'll soon leave sea-lawyers behind.
Up, up with the flag! Pirate's licence for me!
I'm afloat, I'm afloat, and the Rover is free!

* * * * *

DEFINITION OF MILITARY MANOEUVRES.--"Peace-work."

DARWINITES.--"The Evolutionary Squadron."

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

Speaking of _Reynart the Fox_, I was made, by a slip of the printer's
hand--I am accustomed to seeing slips _from_ his hand, which is quite
another thing--to say that this mediæval romance "presents a truer
picture of life than novels in which vice is punished and virtue
patiently rewarded." After considering for some time what on earth
I could have meant by "patiently rewarded," I remembered that I had
written "patently rewarded." The printer put my "i" out; and without
an "i" it was very difficult to perceive the sense of the phrase.

[Illustration]