[_She goes into the back-room and plays_ "The Funeral March of a Marionette" _as the Curtain falls._ THE END (_with the usual apologies_). * * * * * OPERATIC NOTES. [Illustration: "J'y suis." Pro Arris et focus.] _Monday.--Le Prophête_.--Notable performance. Profit to those who were there; loss to those who weren't. The two Poles, NED and JOHN DE RESZKÉ, excellent as the Tipster, or Prophet, and the Chief Anabaptist Swindler. Madame RICHARD--"_O Richard, Oma Reine!_" repeated her grand impersonation of _Fides_, but being a trifle "out of it" as to tune occasionally, I cannot be _Fidei Defensor_, and swear she was quite correct, so can only report that RICHARD was a bit "dicky"; otherwise, sings like a Dicky-Bird. Cathedral Scene magnificent. Rites are wrong, probably; but these are trifles, except to strict ritualists. Skating Scene not up to date; it was a novelty once upon a time, but rinks have done for it. There was an unrehearsed effect in the Prison Scene, when the walls collapsed--the imprisoned Madame RICHARD escaped, and the Curtain descended. Nobody hurt. The walls, which had fallen, like those of Jericho, to the sound of the trumpet, were put away carefully, for alteration and repairs. The prisoner, issuing from her narrow fire-escape, was recaptured, and the Opera ended with the Drinking Scene, the Prophet among the Peris, a peri-lous situation, which makes the Opera go, at the climax, "like a house-a-fire." Burns Justice is done to the Impostor, and, at a late hour, we call our cabs, and return to hum "_béviam_" over "a modest quencher." _Saturday_.--BOÏTO'S _Mefistofele_. Strong combination. Excellent. But big "waits" made it heavy. * * * * * AN AGRICULTURAL TRIPOS. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION PAPER. 1. A field is ploughed three years running. Can it still have a shy at its little go? Examine this, and say all you know about "PIERS, or PEARS, the Ploughman." Did he use his own soap? 2. How do you extract the square of a Beet-root? In connection with this, say how much it will take to square a "Swede?" 3. Explain the use of the "Sewing-machine" for agricultural purposes. What do you mean by "going against the grain?" 4. You plant a field of corn. What plaster do you adopt when it begins to shoot? Also give the best remedy you know for _corn in the ear_. 5. Write a Sentimental History of the Harvest Moon. Is it really twice as big as any other moon, or does it only look so, after drinking the landlord's health several times over? 6. To what _gourmet_ giving a dinner-party in January is attributed the historical saying, "_Peas_ at any price"? 7. How many black beans will make five white ones? Given the number, explain the process, and solve the equation. 8. What pomade do you recommend for "top-dressing"? 9. What would be an M.P.'s first step towards squaring a circle of Agricultural Voters? * * * * *