[Illustration: NATIONAL ECONOMY.

"NOW THEN, MY LADS, KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN OR WE'LL HAVE THE FRAME
CONTROLLER AFTER US."]

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Second-Lieutenant Spooner_ (_unnerved by presence of
a General inspecting_). "THE COMPANY WILL MOVE TO THE FIGHT IN ROARS.
FORM--ROARS! FIGHT!"]

* * * * *

ZERO.

("_Zero-hour_"--_commonly known as "Zero"_--_is the hour fixed for the
opening of an Infantry attack._)

I woke at dawn and flung the window wide.
Behind the hedge the lazy river ran;
The dusky barges idled down the tide;
In the laburnum-tree the birds began;
And it was May and half the world in flower;
I saw the sun creep over an Eastward brow,
And thought, "It may be, this is Zero-hour;
Somewhere the lads are 'going over' now."

Somewhere the guns speak sudden on the height
And build for miles their battlement of fire;