And brightly crowned with golden bracken.
Your loyalty of heart and head,
Of love (and lead) I'm sure won't slacken.
"Bless ye, my children! May your New Love
Be firm and lasting as 'tis true love!"
THE PROFESSIONAL GUEST.
ON A HOUSE-BOAT AT HENLEY.
DEAR MR. PUNCH,
When I received a wire from an old and dear school-friend, saying, "LUCY disappointed; come for week; wire me, Goldfields, Henley—KITTY," I felt that the Art which I had been so assiduously cultivating for some time past was to be put in practice at last. I had long decided that there was a grand opening for girls (the true unemployed) in the idea, and I had determined to make a good thing out of it myself. KITTY' S telegram was somewhat vague, I admit; but gossip having thrown a side-light on it, I knew that it came from Henley, where she and her husband (whom I had never yet seen) had a House-boat for the Regatta week. To answer in the affirmative, pack my box, and catch the next train to Henley, was small work to a "Professional Guest."