["At the weekly meeting of the Balloon Society on the 6th inst., Herr S. A. ANDRÉE read a paper on the projected Polar balloon expedition.... He intended, he said, to go to Spitzbergen and wait for a southerly wind, which would take him very quickly into the Polar regions." _Pall Mall Gazette, August 7, 1895._] * * * * * TO CHLOË. You're mine "in haste"--and so it ends, The usual scrambling, headlong letter; Long vanished are the days of friends Not otherwise more kind or better, Who yet excelled in this respect-- In that they grudged not time or trouble The choicest phrases to select, Nor wrote their letters "at the double"! You're mine "in haste." It's not your fault, You're but unconsciously reflecting Our modern life, we cannot halt, The vice is now beyond correcting, But yet we sigh for old-world days When lighter far was toil and worry, When life was spent in peaceful ways Without the least idea of hurry. You're "mine in haste"--but as I'm told (The saying's not precisely novel) That all that glitters is not gold, The fairy palace proves a hovel, So, possibly, that age was dull, And since you've graciously consented To live to-day--it's wonderful And wrong, perhaps--but I'm contented! You're "mine in haste." I must devote Five minutes to a swift endeavour To pen an answer to your note, But let me sign myself, "Yours ever"; 'Tis not an antiquarian taste Which makes your phrase earn my displeasure So much as that "you're mine in haste" Suggests that I'll "repent at leisure"! * * * * * ONE OF THE CHURCH MILITANT.--The Venerable Archdeacon DENISON celebrated his ninetieth birthday last week. He has been in all the hard fighting, and never shirked. May he yet long be a Denizen amongst us. _Prosit!_ * * * * * Mrs. R. says that, though she has known it all her life, yet she could never quite make out what is the meaning of the old saying that "One man can only stand at a door, while another may look over a house." * * * * * [Illustration: REASSURING. "LOR' BLESS YER, SIR, THAT'S ALL RIGHT, SIR! _THAT_ AIN'T A FLY, SIR!--_THAT_'S A BIT OF DIRT!"] * * * * * BALLAST FOR THAT BALLOON; _Or, Rubbish to be Shot at the Pole._