"Sergeant James," we said, "how goes it?" but the Sergeant looked askance; Not for him the mazy phalanx or the military dance; He could only sit and suffer, with a most portentous frown, While a crowd of little gipsies turned the whole thing upside down. Aunt Maria next surprised us: for her massive back was grooved, And her adenoids gave trouble, so we had them all removed; If we hadn't done it neatly she'd have gone and joined the dead, As it is she hops politely while she walks upon her head. So we'll all fill up a cheque-form on some celebrated Banks-- It's a pity that a cheque-form should be made so much of blanks-- And we'll give the Bank of England all the credit that is due To her hoards of gold and silver; and I wish they weren't so few. * * * * * "Mr. ---- has been actively connected with the last two Victory Loan drives, in the last one raising $15,282,000. As an appreciation of his work the salesmen presented him with a (fifteen million dollar) diamond ring."--_Canadian Paper_. We are glad that something was left for the Loan. * * * * * [Illustration: _Small Boy (who has been promised a visit to the Zoo to-morrow)_. "I HOPE WE SHALL HAVE A BETTER DAY FOR IT THAN NOAH HAD."] * * * * * OUR BOOKING-OFFICE. _(By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks.)_ I found myself as much taken with the title of _The Great Interruption_ (HUTCHINSON) as with any of the dozen short war-stories that Mr. W.B. MAXWELL has collected in the volume. Yet these are admirable of their kind--"muffin-tales" is my own name for them, of just the length to hold your attention for a solitary tea-hour and each with some novelty of idea or distinction in treatment that makes the next page worth turning. The central theme of all is, of course, the same: the War in its effect upon people at the fighting front and elsewhere. Perhaps it was inevitable that Mr. MAXWELL should betray a certain faintly cynical amusement in his dealings with the people of elsewhere. Two of the stories especially--"The Strain of It" and "What Edie Regretted"--are grimly illustrative of some home-keeping types for whom the great tragedy served only as an opportunity for social advancement or a pleasantly-thrilling excuse for futilities. There will be no reader who will not smilingly acknowledge the justice of these sketches; not one of us whose neighbours could not supply an original for them. Fortunately the book has other tales of which the humour is less caustic; probably of intention Mr. MAXWELL'S pictures of war as the soldier knew it, its hardships and compensations, contrast poignantly with the others. On the active-service side my choice would undoubtedly be for the admirably cheery and well-told "Christmas is Christmas" (not exactly about fraternization), as convincing a realisation of the Front at its best as any I remember to