Associated with the vernal prime And widely known as "rathe," why bloom so late? Was it the lure of so-called "Summer-time," Extended well beyond the usual date? Our thanks for which reprieve Are SMILLIE'S, though they didn't ask his leave. Rather I think you have some lofty plan, Such as your old friend WORDSWORTH loved to sing; That for a fair ensample set to Man You duplicate your output of the Spring; That in your heart there lodges Dimly the hope of shaming Mr. HODGES. Ah! gentle primrose by the river's brim! Like _Peter Bell_ (unversed in woodland lore), He'll miss your meaning; you will be to him A yellow primrose--that and nothing more; He'll read in you no sign Of Nature's views about the datum-line. O.S. * * * * * THE MINERS' OPERA. About a week ago, when they took Titterby away to the large red-brick establishment which he now adorns, certain papers which were left lying in his study passed into my hands, for I was almost his only friend. It had long been Titterby's belief that a great future lay before the librettist who should produce topical light operas on the GILBERT and SULLIVAN model, dealing with our present-day economic crises. The thing became an _idée fixe_, as the French say, or, as we lamely put it in English, a fixed idea. There can be no doubt that he was engaged in the terrible task of fitting the current coal dispute to fantastic verse when a brain-cell unhappily buckled, and he was found destroying the works of his grand piano with a coal-scoop. Most of the MS. in my possession is blurred and undecipherable, full of erasures, random stage-directions and marginal notes, amongst which occasional passages such as the following "emerge" (as Mr. SMILLIE would say):-- "_Secretary._ The fellow is standing his ground, He's as stubborn and stiff as a war-mule. _Minister._ A Means will be found If we look all around To arrive at a suitable formula. _Chorus._ Yes, you've got to arrive at a formula." Difficult though my task may be I feel it the duty of friendship to attempt to give the public some faint outline of this fascinating and curious work. Scenarios, _dramatis personæ_ and choruses had evidently caused the author inordinate trouble, for at the top of one sheet I find:-- "ACT I. _Interior of a coal-mine. Groups of colliers with lanterns and picks (? tongs). Enter Chorus of female consumers._" Then follows this note:-- "_MEM. Can one dance in coal-mine? Look up COAL in 'Ency. Brit.' Also CELLAR FLAP_;" and later on, at the end of a passage which evidently described the dresses of the principal female characters introduced, we have the words:-- "_BRITANNIA. ? jumper, bobbed hair. ANARCHY. ? red tights_."