And 'twould be a real feather in our gifted Cambrian's cap
If he taught the peccant flapper less flamboyantly to flap.

But, in _Punch's_ way of thinking, 'tis for women, kind and wise,
These neglected scattered units to enrol and mobilize,
Their vagabond activities to curb and concentrate,
And turn the skittish hoyden to a servant of the State.

She's young; her eyes are dazzled by the glamour of the streets;
She has to learn that life is not all cinemas and sweets;
But given wholesome guidance she may rise to self-control
And earn the right of entry on the Nation's golden Roll.

* * * * *

THE ONLY STEGGLES.

Steggles is my groom, and my crowning mercy. But for his deafness I am sure
he would long since have left the humble rank of gunner far beneath him,
and the Staff might have gained a brilliant strategist. In addition to
dulness of hearing, Steggles is endowed--I should indeed be ungrateful to
use the word afflicted--with a vacuity of expression which puts rivals or
antagonists off their guard, and doubles his value during the vicissitudes
of active service. What would be handicaps to ordinary men Steggles turns
to the advantage of himself, Sapphira my mare, and me.

When on the march the Battery arrives at the morass allotted to it for
horse lines, I know that all will be well with the mud-bespattered
Sapphira. Steggles leaps from the waggon whereon, in company with one of
the cooks, he tours the pleasant land of France, and receives the mare.