HIGH JINKS IN THE GARDEN HOW PENWIPER BROKE UP A BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 34, 3 November 1934, Page 23

HIGH JINKS IN THE GARDEN HOW PENWIPER BROKE UP A BATTLE

High jinks in the garden, with Inkling and his friends and a great big box of fireworks that Kiwi had put in the cupboard and forgotten to lock up! “Let’s have a war,” said Inkling. “Right,” Kiri answered with gusto. “I’ll pick old Penwiper.” “Here, Horace,” beckoned Inkling to one of the Blots. And they divided sides. “Now to arms,” and Inkling pulled the lid off the fireworks box. “O-oh,” cried everybody, for inside that box was the most amazing and exciting collection of crackers that any boy or girl could imagine. There were,sparklets and Catherine wheels, and rockets and squibs, and Roman candles and crackerjacks, and —— oh, ever so many more things. Kiri pounced on the big rocket with a shout, “Bags this,” and Inkling seized the giant Catherine wheel. “Mine,” he cried. ; Sparklets and crackerjacks were then rationed out, and the two “armies” proceeded to prepare for battle. Kiri mounted his rocket cannon-wise on a stick undercarriage, and sent Penwiper off to fetch the hose. “Just in case the Sparks get too sprightly,” he said. “We don’t want to be quite frizzled up, and Inkling looks simply too businesslike; in fact, quite fearsome.” So Penwiper brought the hose and stood on safety-guard,

“Are you ready? Strike!” shouted Inkling, and with a snap and a flash matches sparkled into light. “To fuses—touch,” thundered Kiri in his bold war voice. “Advance,’ ’shouted both leaders together. And Inkling’s Catherine wheel whizzed to meet Kiri’s rocket. Kiri was just going to set his fuse well alight and Inkling was just beginning to feel the least little bit alarmed when he thought about the size of the rocket and its speed and its sparks,- when there came a wail from Penwiper. “Ooh,” he cried. “O-oh!” There was no need for him to explain. With a slitherslidder rush water poured out of the hose pipe and drenched armies and ammunition,so completely that the battle was. simply swamped. The shower stopped. There was a long, dreadful pause. Then Penwiper said in a sad small voice: “I did it. The nozzle tap —in the excitement. T-t-turned it!” and he sobbed bitterly. “Never mind, old Penwiper,” said Kiri, patting his shoulder. “It was our fault, really,” Inkling comforted. “We shouldn’t have used our fireworks until Guy Fawke’s Day.” So Penwiper sniffed a bit and felt happier, and they all collected the ruins and hid them behind the woodshed, where Kiwi found them later. But that’s another sltory altogether.