GOOD-NIGHT STORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 43, 21 February 1927, Page 17

GOOD-NIGHT STORIES.

! BOBBY FINDS A FELLOW i FISHERMAN.

iToId by BLANCHE SILVER ! for PETEK PAN.) Bobby pulled in his line just in time. A great big grayish-white duck-like bird , sailed down with a splash where his hook | had left the water. He almost stood on hi« head, his two yellow legs dangling in the air. But when his head appeared again he had the very fish Bobby wa3 after in his great long bill, and before Bobby could ear x word it disappeared down his throat. •"Well, of all things!'' exclaimed Bobby. '"What in the world are you, anyway ?" "Who, me?" questioned the great big bird, '"Do you mean to say you don't know who I am? I'm Mr. Pelican if you please, and a oetter fisherman can't be found. I never spot a fish but what he's mine. You don't live in Florida, do you?"' "No, I don't" replied Bobby baiting his hook again. "I'm just here visiting my aunt. I've never seen a pelican before. Are all tho«H. birds over there pelicans?" Mr. Pelican looked around and then laughed in a funny voice. '"Most of them, - ' he replied. "You see we know the fishermen that come down to this bridge to fish, and we know they catch a great many fish too small for them to bother with. When they get them too small they toss them over for us. I'm not exactly lazy, but when one can hang around a fishing pier and get food enough for a family, why work for it? Heigh-ho. I must catch another fish and take it home to the wife." He gazed down into the waters.

"You live around here in the trees somewhere V Bobby asked. "Come tell me where you lire and I'll share my fish with you." '"Better still," laughed Mr. Pelican, "give me some fish to take to the wife and I'll take you to meet her. We don't live in trees, you know. By-the-way, what's your name? I've told you mine." ""Bobby's my name," said the little boy. '"I almost forgot my manners. I'd love to meet your wife and see your home, and we'll take all my fish to her." Then Bobby gathered up the paper in which he had hie fish and followed Mr. Pelican to the edge of the shore. There among the tall "grasses they found a rude nest. Mrs. '■ Pelican greeted them with a queer little call. '"My, my!" she laughed as Bobby emptied his fieh on the ground beside her. "Are these all for me?" '"Yes my dear, and here are gome more," said Daddy Pelican, and with a funny little gulp he opened his mouth and three lovely fish tumbled out of the pouch under hie bill. '"Didn't know I had them there, did you, Bobby?" he laughed, when he saw the astonished look upon Bobby's face. "That's what these pouches are for—to carry our food. . Sometimes, when we are not hungry, we catch the fish and store them in our pouches. Then they are there ready when we do get hungry. There they are, wife. Now show Bobby our eggs." "Certainly, certainly." Mrs. Pelican crawled off the test. There among tne dried grasses lay two lovely white eggs. '"It is almost time for them to hatch. You must come back and see the youngsters." "How long does it take ?" asked Bobby. "Just about forty days." replied Mama Pelican, "'and I've just passed the thirty-eight days, so come back in a few days, Bobby." (Bobby promised he would come back. Then bidding Jama and Daddy Pelican good-bye, he hurried back to his fishing. All the small fish he caught that day he tossed to the pelicans that bobbed up and down on the surface of the water. When he went back to his Aunt's house that evening he declared it was the best fishing trip he had ever had.