LITTLE STORIES OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 203, 26 August 1913, Page 11

LITTLE STORIES OF THE DAY.

i BURISTEB'S CHILD. "A popular Paisley minister, while in his previous charge, had' an embarrassing experience when his boy attended church for the first time art the age of three (says the "Glasgow Jfews"). He cast a look every few minutes in the direction of his own pew, and was relieved to see that "Jajnes" was behaving himself, and was looking straight to the front, where sat a staid gentleman with a head, absolutely devoid of hair. In the middle of the sermon, alas! a loud smack was heard, and the reverend pa was horrified to mid that James had reached over and given a' hearty skelp to the tempting shining pate *vri4hin reach- The remainder of the sermon *rae somewhat incoherent. ,2tAT IS " BELEAK " ? Canon Horeley, in "How Criminals are Made and Prevented," gives some good examples of illiteracy in parents. In one school with which I had to do (he writes) when a child' was absent we sent x paper on which the mother should give ihe reason. The sempiternal errands, Jor which there ie ample time before, between, or after school hours, if only mothers would think or manage, appeared in the form of: "To go of an irrand," "Detain on arond," "To get lome arraats," "To go for a. reant." "To go on an arreind," while otiher excusee »ppeared on the paper as "Ceapt by his feather," "Whas kept away beCos he Wos hill," "Very pooly so i keep him A iomb," =Becars *He Whas to late," "To feite for Scwol." "20 mints two 1a4,e," "Sent to mis tomkns cool for his hie is Sad," "Hat home be cose he Wos so ill i Bad to give iin son Meesen," "He as bin Ihe Conse," "Be plad the truent," and so en, a prize being perhaps deserved for the maternal missive, "bil is got the beleak," which only to the experienced reader would suggest the gastric inconvenience which had kept the boy at home. AIiL THE DIFFERENCE. The sort of sentiment which the French system of marriages do convenance, or, hi .plain English, of marriage 'for money, produces is well illustrated by a etory which a FTenoh paper tells. Marie, a young lajy, announces to her parente that f&e has accepted the band trf Monsieur X. "Child, you are crazy!" exclaims Marie'e mother. "But why, mamma?" "Young X. will have ih> money for fflany yeare, because it all ■betongs to 3hs grandfather, and after that comes hie father, and yon will be oM before you get the property." "But, mamma " "Ivo buts about it—you are a bad and nndtrbifo] child!" "But, mamma, it is fhc grandfather Tve accepted!" "The grandfather! Oh, yon little eagel!"