Each land ringed round with a fence of steel, Each party snarling at other's heel; None seeming loving, few looking leal. Poverty spreading athwart the land, With mutterings few dared understand, Though they palsied Charity's helpful hand. And the good old greybeard stood and gazed At the thousand hearths where no Yule-fire blazed, At the hate-led nations, the classes crazed. "And oh!" he cried, "is it come, the time When the land low grovels in greed and grime, And heeds no longer my cheering chime? "Is it past, all prospect of love's increase? Is it time my rallying cry should cease-- 'Peace and Good-will! Good-will and Peace!'? "Is it fled, the hope that my heart has buoyed? Is it finished, the labour in which I joyed? Am _I_ the chief of the Unemployed?" * * * * * THE DEAR DEPARTED.--He has departed, and he was dear--at the price, was the poor little Gorilla! He died at the Zoo just ten days ago. Was it owing to his being so generously dieted, and never getting "Monkey's allowance?" Jenny the Baboon refused to attend the funeral, which was strictly private. Her conduct has created some astonishment among the officials. A jarring note was struck by the Hyæna, which could not repress its laughter. He died intestate. The Gorilla's decease makes no change in the government of Monkey Island. * * * * * THE CONSCIENTIOUS APPARITION; OR, THE PHANTOM BILL OF COSTS. (_A Legal Ghost Story for Christmas._)