RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30682, 23 February 1965, Page 24

RANDOM REMINDER

STORY TIME

Once upon a time, and not so very long ago either there' were three little apprentices. They worked all day in a great big engineering works and saved hard because they all had ambitions. The first one wanted a tape recorder, the second wanted a car and the third was just plain ambitious. Very soon the first one met a man who had just come back from across the big sea and he got his wish, transistorised and all. And not long after, the second one got his, the oldest, noisiest, rattletrappingest car you ever did see. But the third little apprentice invested his pittance and he became quite rich when the great big Golden Kiwi laid him a fine big egg one Thursday morning. Well, this little appren-

tice bought a shiny, new car and it made him very proud. So his two friends thought up a plot. The first apprentice took his Treasure for a ride in the car of the second. And when the engine was as noisy as could be, he switched on the recorder and held the little microphone very close to the noise.

Why? You wait and see. Then they asked the proud apprentice if they could go for a ride in his shiny new car. And do you know what? They took that tape recorder with them. Well, the third little apprentice was so proud that he began to show off. He whipped that shiny new car through the gears and gave it peak revs in top. They tramped. Then the first little apprentice switched on the recorder at Full Pitch.

What a surprise. Instead of a soft, purring kitty noise, there was the sound of angry piston slap, big ends running, tappets clattering, gears whining and diffy complaining—just like daddy's car.

And the third little apprentice had to stop and look under the shiny new car's bonnet and investigate. Then he saw the other two smiling and he guessed about the plot. So he smiled too. And they thought he wouldn’t be proud Ever Again. But they were wrong. The third little apprentice smiled because he had hatched a Plot of his very own.

He threw out the taperecorder. He threw out the first little apprentice. Then he threw out the second. Then he drove off. Alone.