THE BAR OF SOAP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BAR OF SOAP.

(By PINDAREE.)

In Lostland all was consternation. The bar of soap which the brave knight, Sir Grabbit, had taken when the palace Keepit had been surrounded and made to surrender, was missing. No one knew where it was.

The King, Smackit, was in an awful rage. Having seen no soap in his life before, he had just taken it out of the locked drawer to use it when it was discovered that it was missing.

Ho was sure it had been taken by one of his enemies, but the Lord Chancellor told him this was impossible, as none of his enemies had entered the

palace. The little elf, Findit, having read of the huge eward of l-100th of a penny offered for it, set out to look for it.

He had not gone far when he came to the little tree called Kissit. Here he halted, and dismounting he asked the tree if it had seen the bar of soap.

"No," the tree replied. As soon as he had passed it the tree began to laugh, and it laughed till it shook. Going on further he met the old witch, Boilit, who was in a very bad temper. "Boilit," he called. "Well," called the old witch. "Have you seen a bar of soap?" he asked. "No," she replied. Her cackling laugh began as soon as they had passed one another. The elf looked round, but could see no object at which she would laugh.

Next ho met the King .himself, wlio aeked him what he was doing. After ho replied, the King passed on. Turning round lie saw the elf and what had made everybody else laugh. It was the soap tied to the elf's horse's tail, Wild with rage he turned and ran to him, ordering the soldiers to arrest Findit and have him executed at once.

Findit pleaded with the King, who could not be persuaded to let Findit go. As they were taking Findit away a little elf ran up and told the King he had tied it to the horse's tail.

A QUEER FIND

The skipper of an English fishing boat had a surprise the other day when he found in the stomach of a whiting a brass token dated 1701!

We cannot suppose the whiting was 226 years old. Ho must have found the coin lying at the bottom of the sea in recent times, and it must have been rolling about there ever since some wreck two centuries ago. By what a carious chance it has found its way back to the light of day and the world of men! Of course, the token has no value except as a curiosity. It Avas never current money. A token was a coin issued by a private person or civic authority, and arrangements were made to exT change it for goods or current money. Many famous firms paid their workpeople like this, and some of the designs used were very quaint. The collection of these old tokens makes an amusing hobby, and someone who is engaged in this pursuit is sure to give the whiting's contribution a good home. But perhaps no other token in the world has such a queer story—lost in the sea and returned to the world by a fish.-

BRIGHT BOYS,

The bright boys of East London are not to be beaten for sharpness and native wit.

Said one: "Your father must be a terrible man—him a shoemaker and making you wear those boots." Whereupon the second retorted: "He's nothing to what your father is—him a dentist and your baby with only one tooth!"

A CURIOUS SENTENCE.

The following sentence contains all the letters of the alphabet. Only five of the letters are repeated, and these are all vowels: "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs."