THE BOGY OF BOG FARM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BOGY OF BOG FARM.

Two children, named Betty and Robin, lived in Black Boar Farm. On one Fide of the farm stretched the great Black Bog, shaking and quaking, and very, very dangerous. Robin had heard sad tales about the old bog. '■Sears' ago," an old farmhand told him, -before your dad was born, there was n treasure trove lost in the bog. Thrown in, it was, by an old cranky miser who lived on the farm before vour grandfather had it. The treasure doesn't belong to anybody, and whoever finds it may keep it, for that'e the law. But it never will be found. There it lies hidden under the bosr."

Robin thought hard all the way home. "If only I could find it!" he said to himself. "Dad is needing money to keep iip the farm." He was roused from his thought by a little sound of sobbing as he reached the big farm gates. There sat Betty staring, as she often did, across the bog. "Robin, Robin,'' she cobbed, "I know my Bogy is dead!" > Robin knew at once whom Betty meant. She was such a little girl that she had always believed that the will o' the wisp that was to be seen over the bop- was a real fairy friend of hers. "Listen," said Robin. "You know that dad has told you what your Bogy really is. It's just a will o' the wisp that flies over the bog because it's such a damp place. It's pretty to watch, but that's all it is."

"It is my fairy Bogy!" said Betty, unhappily. "And it is gone." And she went into the house very sad. Betty was very restless that night. Over and over she turned on her pillow. "Robin doesn't know," she thought, "how I've watched and watched for my darling Bogy. But I have. And lie never comes now. I used to see him every day dancing about over the bog with his little light. I would have followed him only daddy said I mustn't. But now suppose he's ill?" Betty couldn't go to sleep. It was bright moonlight, too. She could nee the big Black Bog from her window—the bog where nobody went. "I'm going," said Betty, suddenly making up her mind. "I'm going. I'm sure my Bogy is ill." Out of bed she got and started off to the hog. Nobody heard her tip-toe downstairs. But at the sound of' the closing of the hall door Robin woke up. Who could be going out at that time of night ? He jumped up and peered out of the window. There in the bright moonlight was Betty walking right down to the <V;ge of the big Black Bog! Robin was downstairs in a moment. "Betty!" he shouted, as he ran. And, as lie shouted, right into the middle of the bog stepped Betty! She meant to pro. She must go quickly now, she thought, for Robin was coming to take her home. "Bobbie, let me go!" she called. "My darling Bogy is ill." Fathers and mothers have quick ears. In a very short time —though it seemed a long time to Robin, who dared not leave Betty alone—there was the sound of dad's cheery call.