THE GNOME'S REVENGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 182, 3 August 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE GNOME'S REVENGE.

Noodle, the gnome, was in a great rage because live little imps had been making fun of his nose. , Like most gnomes, he had a very huge nose, and those mischievous impe had crept in on the previous night when he was sleeping and well brushed it With bright scarlet enamel. By the time he awoke it had dried, and as soon as he came out from his underground home the imps crowded round him, yelling, "Oh, his nose shines like a glowworm. No need for extra lighting in his' cave now!" Noodle chased them and threatened to "make ail example" of any he caught. When they grew tired of teasing him and went away he stared at'his reflection in a clear pool and tried to wash off the enamel. Finding this impossible, he went home and eat planning a deep, dark revenge. Perhaps you do not know that gnomes are very proud of their noses? The larger a gnome's nose the higher his position in Gnomeland; and so gnopies pinch and pull their noses every day, hopiag to become - great. The Gnome King, whose nose was very large indeed, had patented some special nose-grower, which was very expensive. When he remembered this, Noodle slapped his knee and chuckled. Next he removed a stone from the wall of his cave and took out a handful of guineas. He gloated over them for a long time before saying, with a sigh: "Yes, I can spare one in so good a cause." Then he put back the rest and replaced the stone. That evening he crept round to the hollow tree-trunk in which the imps slept and smeared a lot of nose-grower upon the tip of each little snub nose. They were snoring and did not awake from their sound sleep, and he crept away chuckling, a half-empty tube in his hand. In the morning he was up early and squatting outside the tree-trunk. He heard the imps laughing at each other as 'they woke ,and then wailing when they felt that their own noses had grown too. Running out they cried: "We are sorry, Noodle. Please make our noses small again." Noodle held his sides and laughed,, because they really looked very comical, then .he said, "No, no, sirs; there is no nose-grower removal yet on the market. We gnomes are never likely to invent one, and so I am afraid your noses must stay big for ever." He went away chuckling and the imps realised how dangerous it is .to play tricks on gnomes.