BEDTIME STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

BEDTIME STORY.

THE SLIDE.

It was a great disappointment. ■; "After corning all this way," sighed Maggie, "and then to find the ice won't bear. It's too bad!" "It might not he so had in the middle," suggested Wilfred, giving a venturesome slide forward from the bank.. Crack! Crack! went the ice, and great stars showed under the surface, while the ice heaved up and down in to terrifying a manner that Wilfred was only too pleased to reach the bank. There was no help for it but to go home and wait for a sharper frost to thicken the ice. But Wilfred was not very good at putting up with disappointments. "This is safe, anyway!" he said defiantly, as he slid along a frozen puddle in the road. "I'm going to try, too," cried Maggie, and soon they were sliding up and. down as gaily as could be. They might have gone 011 with the game until dinner-time had they not seen the burly figure- of Jones, the policeman, in the distance, and suddenly remembered that sliding along the road was not allowed. ; "Don't be running off after dinner," said Mother, when they got in, "I've got a jar of blackcurrant jelly. I want you to take to Aunt Rosie, and she'll be asking you to stay to tea. Be good children and I'll come to fetch you home at six o'clock." ; -- • How pleased Maggie and Wilfred were! Tea at Helford Mill was on the list of big treats, for Aunt Rosie's scones and honey, with clotted cream and., soda-cakes, were good. So there was no runing off after dinner—they were ready before Mother was. There was so much to see at the mill, and Maggie, when they set out, had all she could do_ to keep pace with her brother. "We'll ask to go up to the loft," laughed Maggie, "and count the sacks of flour. I love the trap door and-—• oh!" The "oh" came as a squeal, for Wilfred had suddenly slipped, and in trying to save himself, grabbed Maggie. Down they both came crash, while away flew the basket, out fell the jar, and away fled the gelly in all directions. That was not the worst of the tragedy. They had slipped on their own elide. "Ah," said Jones, the policeman, a« he helped two sobbing and ashamed youngsters to their feet. "I was on the watch for those who made that'slide. I wonder who it could have been ? I'll teach 'em a lesson when I catch 'em; selfish cruelty, that's what it is. They ought to be punished." Wilfred and Maggie returned sadly home with an empty basket and 'bruised knees and elbows. They hadn't told Jones that those selfish sliders had been punished. Perhaps there was no need. Perhaps- he guessed it!—H. D.