You recollect that day of rain, Of drumming roof, of streaming pane, How, just before the hour of tea, A great light bathed the nursery; And you those tiresome tresses shook Back from your eyes and whispered, "Look!" The day-lost sun was sinking low, Filling the world with after-glow; We saw together, you and I, A rainbow right across the sky. * * * * * Though years divide us, old and grey, From childhood's distant yesterday; In spite of unbelieving Deans We still know what a rainbow means. * * * * * MUSICAL GOSSIP FROM THE GERMAN FRONT. "For the last twenty years," writes M. JEAN-AUBRY, a distinguished French musical critic, "the temple of German music has been no longer at Bonn, or Weimar, or Munich, or Bayreuth, but at Essen. The modern German orchestra, with Strauss and Mahler, was concerned more with the preoccupations of artillery and the siege-train than with those of real music. It desired to become a rival of Krupp." These remarks are borne out in a remarkable way by the latest news of STRAUSS. It has always been very difficult to obtain precise intelligence about his works, owing to his notorious aversion from publicity, and we accordingly give this information with all reserve, simply for what it is worth. It is to the effect that, while retaining the parts for three Minenwerfen in his new Battle Symphony, he has been obliged to re-score one movement in which four "Big Berthas" were prominently engaged, owing to the impossibility of securing any of these instruments since the Armistice. He has, however, with admirable resource substituted parts for four influenza microbes. There are no French horns in the score, but by way of showing a conciliatory spirit to the British army of occupation he has introduced in the _Finale_ an adaptation of a well-known patriotic song, which is marked on the margin, "_Die W.A.A.C. am Rhein_." * * * * * "HIGH LIFE BELOW STAIRS." "Tablemaid (upper), elderly Countess; Scotland, England; good wage."--_Scotsman_. * * * * * "ANGLING. "LOCH TAY.--KILLIN.--Mr. C.B. ----, London, had on Beans and pease quiet and unchanged. Feeding offals 17th one salmon, 27 lb."--_Scotsman_. But are these lures quite sportsmanlike? * * * * * From a "table of contents":-- "SPECIAL ARTICLES. "The German 'Soul'--To Rise Like a Phoenix ... 10 Rats ........................................ 10" _Glasgow Herald_. Agreed; or, as they say in the House of Lords, "the Contents have it." * * * * * KISMET. Those old comrades, Sergeant Kippy and Gunner Toady, stood on the steps of the Convalescent Home and regarded the peaceful country-side which, in South Devon, is a sedative even in February.