TO MR. RUDYARD KIPLING.

(An Explanation.)

["Every minute of my time during 1891 is already mortgaged. In 1892 you may count upon me."—Mr. JEROME K. JEROME, not Mr. RUDYARD KIPLING. See "Punch," Feb. 14.]

Oh, Mr. KIPLING!—you whose pungent pen

Of pirate publishers has been the terror,

Try hard, I beg you, to forgive me, when

I openly confess I wrote in error.

It was not you by whom the deed was done.

But Mr. JEROME 'twas who wrote and said he