FAIRY SILVERS-SHOE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1933, Page 8

FAIRY SILVERS-SHOE

"Whjr'clQ^you whip them all round ev? ry ;/aig]i.t When, you ./put them to ibecW?;; It- was.; Mrs. All-Sniiles speaking. - She lived next door to the Old Woman who lived in a shoo,'and'she; hated to hear the popr children crying every!'night-when they went" to bed.; She ; ,too had Jots and lots o^ children,: but,they never cried, for she Itoldithem stories when they'went to bed and gaye1 them-a juicy p.ppl& each night'for.tEoir supperi-.-;.'',.;. : .. • " ■ , The; Old J^brnan''turned when she' heard .the; and replied: Why do I whip; them, I indeed? To keep them I froih ; being naughty, of course!" and' sherais'e'd her jbirch ready for the nextvictim. .;'"^. ' .'• : -~ "_Stop, stop!;" cried-Mrs. All-Smiles.' "Listen to me. I used to think as you do, that the more you whipped children the "better they would behave: but instead of getting better, they got worse and worse, and I didn't know what to do—jtlst the same as you. So, tired and weary, I wandered down to the river and sat down ■to rest ■ on the bank. Suddenly I saw a little silver shoe come gliding down the rive.r. It stopped close to me, and out jumped the loveliest'little fairy. "Why are you crying? " she'ksked, and I told her all about; my naughty .children. She' laughed and said, "Why, you dear old silly, of course they will go on beinw naughty if you w,hip them whether they: are good or naughty; • You try my plair ■and tell them-'a fairy story instead,; and give them an apple in place of that nasty broth without any bread." Then she glided away in the silver shoe, kissing her hand to me as she went.: I raced homo to try her plan, and, do'you know, from that day to this, my chif dren have been as good as gold!" "Well I never!" cried the Old Woman. "I'll try it too!".. So she dropped her birch,,called all tho children together, tqlcTthem a fairy story she had. remembered f roni her childhood days, gave them each ;an apple, arid they raced off to beS the-happiest children in the landL Never any. more was a birch seen in,' Shoe Land, and there were smiling faces a-nd sounds of- hatipy laughter. i ■ . "' Found t>y ; ' "WHITE LILY" (?). Petone.