_Mrs. Jinks._ "YES; BUT THEY MAKE ONE SO _UNRESERVED_!"] * * * * * AD JOVEM PLUVIUM. ["Ju Plu has been in his best form lately."--_Sporting Paper._] ENGLAND farewell, when showers of rain From dewy eve to dawn pour, I fly across the heaving main To Aden or to Cawnpore. The deep floods hide my native land, No more as land I rank it, I envy on some foreign strand The brown man in his blanket. Through sandy deserts he may roam, But bright suns shine for him there, And if he wants to reach his home He never has to swim there. There would I dwell, away, away I fly, these floods disdaining, Where Jupiter can rule the day Without a thought of raining. * * * * * SONG TO BE SUNG AT THE RECEPTION OF M. ALPHONSE DAUDET (_when he comes, and may it be soon!_).--"We all love 'JACK'"! * * * * * FOR GRAMMARIANS.--The latest Oxymoron;--the new Pianist, Herr SAUER, playing a "_suite_." * * * * * THE CHRONICLES OF A RURAL PARISH. IV.--ELECTIONEERING. WHATEVER, my wife may think about my public meeting, and whatever I may feel about it myself, one thing is quite certain--that it has left Mudford a very different village from what it found it. When I commenced my great efforts in the cause of citizenship there was apathy and ignorance amongst the "idiots"--as my friend Miss PHIL. BURTT insists on calling the villagers. Things travel quickly nowadays, and at the present moment we are all ablaze with the excitement of electioneering. I ought to say at once that I have taken as yet no steps in my own candidature. I feel that, after the part I have played in the great Drama of Village Home Rule, the next move ought to come from a grateful and appreciative peasantry. In point of fact, I have been expecting every day, every hour almost, a deputation to ask me to allow myself to be put in nomination--I fancy that's the correct phrase. So far the deputations have been as conspicuous by their absence _since_ the meeting as they were annoying by their frequency _before_. Another curious fact I have noticed in this. We are to have a Parish Council of seven. Thus far I have heard of _exactly seven candidates and no more_. This means that when I am nominated, as I shall be, of course, by all sections of the community (for I feel in my inward heart that it will be "all right on the night"), there will be only _one_ candidate too many. Who will be the unsuccessful one? I wonder!