["The municipality of Rothausen has decided to present to the collection of metal which is being made in Germany its monument of Kaiser WILLIAM THE FIRST."--_Reuter_.] Heavy is Armageddon's price And loud the call to sacrifice; All stuff composed of likely metals-- Door-knockers, hairpins, cans and kettles-- Into the War's insatiate melting-pot Has to be shot. That was a hard and bitter blow When first your church-bells had to go-- Those saintly bells that rang carillons While in the maw of happy millions Pure joy and gratitude to Heaven thrilled For babies killed. It hurt your Christian hearts to melt A source of faith so keenly felt; And now (worse sacrilege than that) you Propose to take yon regal statue, That godlike effigy, and make a gun Of WILLIAM ONE! What will _He_ say when you reduce His Relative to cannon-juice? The prospect must be pretty rotten If thus the Never-To-Be-Forgotten Is treated, like the corpses of your friends, For useful ends. I hear the ALL-HIGHEST mutter, "Ha! They're liquefying Grandpapa! The nation's needs, that grow acuter, Count sacred things as so much pewter; Even my holy crown may go some day Down the red way!" O.S. * * * * * LE SENEGALAIS. Samedou Kieta sat up in bed with a child's primer open before him. "M--A," he spelled. Then, after an incredibly long time of patient puzzling, "M--A--MA. Oui, MA. Y a bon!" and embraced the whole ward in one wide white grin before turning to the next syllable, "M--A--N." Once more the puzzled frown on the black face, once more the whispered hints from neighbouring beds, once more the triumph of perseverance, "M--A--N--MAN!" He was just enjoying his success and chanting his pidgin-French paean of happiness, "Y a bon! Y a bon!" when Soeur Antoinette paused by his bed. "Tres bien, Sidi," she said, "mais il faut les mettre ensemble," and with her white finger she guided his black one back to the first syllable. Here was difficulty indeed! He knew all right that M--A--N was MAN, but what was M--A? And when, after intense effort, he re-discovered that M--A spelled MA, it was only to find that he had forgotten what M--A--N spelled. At last the other wounded could contain themselves no longer, and the ward was filled with laughing shouts of "Maman!" in which Samedou joined most happily. Presently the English nurse passed the negro's bed, and he at once turned to another branch of learning. "Good morning," he said, and, when she smiled back a greeting to him, he added, "T'ank you," and looked proudly round him at his fellow-patients as who should say, "See how we understand one another, she and I!"