"No we didn't," said the Hatter. "I didn't want any Moonshine in a City Department and no poet is a good business man. I picked out a very successful Haberdasher in the Sixth Ward for the delicate business of organising the Department, and he has done most excellent work. We found that just as a first class confectioner made a splendid manager of our gas plant, and a successful Hoki-Poki merchant had the required push to keep our trolley systems going, so the Haberdasher had the precise kind of genius to manage the poets. He won't stand any nonsense from them, and any poem that he can't understand is immediately thrown into the Civic Waste-Basket, taken to the Municipal Ferry and used for fuel to run the boats. I guess we burn nineteen tons of refuse verse a day, don't we, Alderman?" "About that--on the average," said the March Hare. "Sometimes it gets as high as twenty tons and occasionally it falls off to sixteen--but using these rejected manuscripts in place of coal has reduced the loss on the Ferry about thirty-eight dollars a year in real money." "How much is that in bonds?" asked Alice slyly. "O--let's see," said the Hatter, his face getting very red, "well--I should say on a basis of 43-1/3% to one, thirty-eight dollars would, come to about $97,347.83 in third debenture ten per cent. certificates, exclusive of the cost of printing, advertising, and the number we give away as sample copies." "Quite a saving," said Alice. "Yes," said the Hatter. "We save all we can. Economy in real money is our watchword. We never spend a cent where a bond will serve the purpose." [Illustration: "GREETED BY THE COMMISSIONER, THE HABERDASHER"] By this time Alice and her hosts had reached the building occupied by the Department of Public Verse, and upon entering its spacious doorway the party were greeted by the Commissioner, the Haberdasher, to whom Alice was promptly introduced. He reminded her very forcibly of her old acquaintance Bill the Lizard, but she was not sure enough on this point to recall their previous meeting when she had so tactlessly kicked him up through the chimney flue of the Wonderland Cottage. "Well, Mr. Commissioner," said the Hatter, "how are you getting along?" "Pretty well, Mr. Mayor," replied the Commissioner. "We've just finished the six line couplet for the new Chewing Gum Bonds." "Good," said the Hatter. "How does it go?" "Rather neatly I think," said the Commissioner, and he read the following: We promise to pay This bond some day If of the stuff We've got enough. And if we haven't, pray don't despond, For we'll pay it off with another bond. "Fine," said the Hatter. "You strike a very lofty note in that. And how do the new Limericks work?" "We've finished number 3907 of series XZV," said the Commissioner. "I'll send for Wiggins who wrote it and let him read it to you himself." A pressure of an electric button brought the smiling Wiggins into the office.