ISABEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19502, 4 December 1926, Page 4 (Supplement)

ISABEL.

BT POXIOTHT KACi.

Isabel was a little girl right at the tail end of tho family. The others were almost grown-up so, of course, she didn't have children to play with every day. Sometimes Jack, hor brother, played with her, but he was nearly 13 and she was just over- threa &he wasn't ever lonely though, because she loved the animals. She had a pony called Tiny, all her very own, and she could ride it quite well, oven if she were only three, and then there were the dogs to play with and hor very own little dog to harness up, and drive around in a little cart. There was a pet lamb, too, and she had Several furry little kittens that liked to play "rough and tumble." Jack had made the dearest little toboggan for her to shoot down the hills >n. It was great fun as long .as one didn't tumble off too often. Sometimes she rode round the sheep on Tiny with the boys, so you see she 'hadn't much time to be lonely in, had she ? One day she was missing. They hunted high and low for her, all through the housp, tl|en to the cowshed and then to the dog kennels. The dog kennels were like so many tiny houses set round in a circle, and there, < sitting' gravely with a chain around her neck was Isabel. " Wow, wow," she said, " wow. wow." The dogs thought it was great fun. Jack looked at the serious, grubb'v. Httle figure seated in their midst and laughed. " Hullo, wow, wow, good dor Towzer," he said, and patted the slee' black head. " Come on doggie; come t<

the cowshed," he said, "and I'U show you one of the tricks that the Rane'ts dog can do." Jack began to milk the cow. " Stand about a yard away from me," he 6aid, " and open your mouth wide and see if you can catch" the milk as I squirt it in." The first squirt splashed all over her „forehead and noso After a while she succeeded in catching some of the milk, but I'm very much afraid there was far more millt on her than anywhere. " Wait a minute Jack," she said, " wait till I get my little billy." Then she tried to milk the cow, and she soon got enough to cover the bottom if the billy. She was so pleased. . She took it in to her mother and said, "Look mummy. I milked this all by myself. See, if you hold the billy very still," and she held the hilly very straight, "it is quite a lot. and mummy I was a dog and .Tack and I had such fun." " Yes darling, if dirt had anything to do with it, you certainly hact," said mummy.