I run eight hundred hens to the acre. They die by dozens mysteriously.... I am more than doubtful concerning my Maker. Why has the Lord afflicted me? What a return for all my endeavour-- Not to mention the L. S. D.! I am an atheist now and for ever, Because this God has afflicted me! PROGRESSIVE Money spent on an Army or Fleet Is homicidal lunacy.... My son has been killed in the Mons retreat. Why is the Lord afflicting me? Why are murder, pillage and arson And rape allowed by the Deity? I will write to the _Times_, deriding our parson Because my God has afflicted me. CHORUS We had a kettle, we let it leak; Our not repairing it made it worse. We haven't had any tea for a week.... The bottom is out of the Universe! CONCLUSION This was none of the good Lord's pleasure, For the Spirit He breathed in Man is free; But what comes after is measure for measure And not a God that afflicteth thee. As was the sowing so the reaping Is now and evermore shall be. Thou art delivered to thy own keeping. Only Thyself hath afflicted thee! A SONG AT COCK-CROW '_Ille autem iterum negavit._' The first time that Peter denied his Lord He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord, But followed far off to see what they would do, Till the cock crew--till the cock crew-- After Gethsemane, till the cock crew! The first time that Peter denied his Lord 'Twas only a maid in the palace who heard, As he sat by the fire and warmed himself through. Then the cock crew! Then the cock crew! ('Thou also art one of them.') Then the cock crew! The first time that Peter denied his Lord He had neither the Throne, nor the Keys nor the Sword-- A poor silly fisherman, what could he do When the cock crew--when the cock crew-- But weep for his wickedness when the cock crew? * * * * * The next time that Peter denied his Lord He was Fisher of Men, as foretold by the Word, With the Crown on his brow and the Cross on his shoe, When the cock crew--when the cock crew-- _In Flanders and Picardy when the cock crew_. The next time that Peter denied his Lord 'Twas Mary the Mother in Heaven Who heard, And She grieved for the maidens and wives that they slew When the cock crew--when the cock crew-- _At Tirmonde and Aerschott when the cock crew_. The next time that Peter denied his Lord The Babe in the Manger awakened and stirred, And He stretched out His arms for the playmates He knew-- When the cock crew--when the cock crew-- _But the waters had covered them when the cock crew_.