A STORY OF COTTER.

Observer, Volume XXV, Issue 29, 1 April 1905, Page 14

A STORY OF COTTER.

(With apologies to Budyard Kipling and " The Story of Uriah.") " There were two men in one island : one was its King and the other was his Lawyer." Tom Cotter went to Tonga Because they paid him to ; The King wrote up to him to- say He'd work for him to do. And you may bet a handsome fee, Before he went, he drew. Tom Cotter went to Tonga : We do not understand The reason of his journey To that pleasant sea-girt land ; But the season was midsummer, And a sea-trip then is grand. Tom Cotter went to Tonga, Where the dusky in lidens sing, And where a man on holiday May have a pleasant fling : And it isn't all of us can say — '♦ Pa's dining with the King." Tom Cotter's smile at Tonga Must give them quite a turn ; But I shouldn't be astonished, Tho' his bsst red fire he burn, He doesn't scare a little bit His Excellency Thurn. And when the last instalment Of the massive fee is told, And Tom returns to Auckland, Where we know him from of old ; And Tonga opes its Treas'ry doors, And finds its coffers bare ; I shouldn't like to be the King That brought Tom Cotter there. — K. Kipling.

Annie May Abbott, the much dead "Georgia Magnet," was appearing in London at latest advices.