I think I shall buy one of these attractive pets if my pass-book encourages me.  Cheaper than a motor-car and far more intelligent and responsive to human affection, a dromedary will add distinction to my establishment and afford pleasant occupation for my leisure.  It brings no attendant annoyance from the Inland Revenue authorities; there are no tiresome registration fees or regulations as to the dimensions of a number-plate.

As long as I can remember I have lived in a state of uncertainty as to whether a dromedary has two humps and a camel one, or a camel two humps and a dromedary one.  With one of these exotic quadrupeds tethered only a few yards away from the kitchen door that condition of doubt need not exist in the future for more than a few moments.  In a good light it should be perfectly easy to count the humps or hump.  Then again a dromedary will come for a walk on a fine evening without involving one in a dog-fight.  It will provide quiet yet healthful exercise for the two children.  If it turns out that the type possesses two humps it will be able to convey Edgar and Marigold at one and the same time, thus saving delay and inconvenience.

It will be a protection to the house.  When we have gone to bed the faithful creature will lie on guard in the hall, and no amount of poisoned liver thrust through the letter-box will assuage its ferocity or weaken its determination to protect the hearth and home of its master against marauders.  For the dromedary is not only a strict teetotaler and non-smoker, but a lifelong vegetarian.  Famous for its browsing propensities, a dromedary about the garden will save untold labour and expense, keeping the lawn trimmed and the hedges clipped.  And indoors its height will serve me admirably in enabling me, while seated on its hump or one of its humps, to attend in comfort to a little whitewashing job which will not brook further postponement.

I will look at my pass-book to-morrow.

* * * * *

FLOWERS’ NAMES.

          COLT’S FOOT.

  When the four Horses of the Sun
    Were little leggy things,
  When they could only jump and run
    And hadn’t grown their wings,
  The Sun-God sent them out to play
  In a field one July day.

  Oh, the four Horses of the Sun
    They galloped and they rolled,
  They leapt into the air for fun
    And felt so brave and bold;
  And when they’d done their gallopings
  They’d grown four splendid pairs of wings.

  The Sun-God fetched them in again
    To draw his car of gold;
  But you can still see very plain
    Where each one leapt and rolled;
  For from each hoof-mark, every one,
  There sprang a little golden sun,
  And that same little golden flower
  People call Colt’s Foot to this hour.

* * * * *

    “The stove will stand by itself anywhere.  It omits neither smoke nor
    smell.”—­Provincial Paper.