THE BOYS' CORNER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BOYS' CORNER.

JIM'S WIRELESS SET.

"Jim!" That sounded like his mother calling. "Jim." It was. Lazily tho boy who was sitting on the half-buried tree trunk rose and slowly walked toward the house, whittling an ash stick as he went and leaving a trail of peelings behind him. "Jim, I wish you'd stop cutting at that stick, making a litter all on the path." "What do you want, mother?" inquired Jim, shutting his penknife tip with a snap and dropping it into his tronser pocket, where it lay hobnobbing with various other treasures. "Look at the garden, my boy, look at it. You don't stay at home to sit cutting sticks to pieces, do you!" Jim privately wished he did, and privately thought he ought to be allowed to, but aloud he just said, "No, mums." * "I've the housework to do and yet you expect me to work and slave in the garden as well." * "What do you want me to do?" he asked again. "I want you to take that hoe and that bucket and fetch a few of those weedr out. You're bone idle, that's what it is." But Mrs. Gawthorp didn't know the truth of the matter at all. 'Jim wasn't bone idle, he was merely lonely. And who wouldn't be ? He raised his back from hoeing and looked round him. Everywhere, as far as he could see, wide stretches of open country and patches oI bush. Not a human figure moving anywhere. . And it was the same every day. The shepherd, his two dogs, and his mother, who kept house for the shepherd, were the only folk he ever saw, and there was no other sign of life, except when a solitary motor-car swept along the narrow white road more than a mile from the cottage. But there were exceptions, little flashes of colour in the drab cloth of existence which made its dullness blacker when they passed. Once, a broken down motor had stopped on the road and the driver had passed the night in the cottage. He was a traveller, an£ told stories of lions, and Zulus, and African hunting. Jim listened enraptured, and for nights afterwards dreamed of buffaloes and other big game, of becoming an adventurer himself. Bur in the morning he had to feed the pigs., and hoe, or watch the sheep just the same. But, suddenly and unexpectedly, it changed. Changed, just when the winter was coming on, the winter with no books, no music, and no pals. It happened quite simply. "How much do those wireless things cost, Arthur?" asked Mrs. Gawthorp of the shepherd one evening. "Oh, I don't know. I should think they're a deal of money," answered the shepherd. "About a tenner, mebbe." " Ten pounds!" Mrs. Gawthorp -was silent for a little while, and then she said, "Well, it's a good prize, but who knows what to find in the country. There's nothing but sheep and bush and hills; precious little else." "May I see, mother?" asked Jim, and when he got the paper he read the" competition in a firm of wireless dealers. "Free! A two-valve wireless set, complete. See details of our new competition below."

Jim read them eagerly. Ifc was open to all readers under the age of sixteen, and was in the children's page, of the newspaper. Why, it was easy! . All you had to do was to write the things that couM be found out in the country and make it into a little story and send it in. Jim's eyes sparkled. He had heard of wireless, but had not experienced its joys. There was plenty of time, though, and for the next few days Jim disregarded his mother and roamed about the hills, finding new things, new interests everywhere. The writing was another matter. Jim's efforts were crude, but he wrote again and again, destroying sheet after sheet after it was completed, as a new and fascinating thought came, and at last it was put in an envelope and consigned to the care of the carrier, who promised to post it. Days passed, outwardly as before, but in Jim's heart a small new ambition was blossoming. He wanted to hear things, he wanted to know what people were doing, what things were, and so he waited, working quietly, with an eye on the carrier's cart whenever it came over the rise. But one day it came, and with it came two things, a letter and a square parcel. Jim's heart beat with emotion, and before going to the house he went to his favourite nook in the hen run and opened the letter. It was true; he had won, and this was the " open sesame" to wonderland. With fumbling fingers he tore the papjr off and looked at the intricacies within. But a sudden desolating thought struck him. He didn't know what to do with it. Ah, there must be a book of instructions! There was, but it left him where he was. What was a valve, what was an earth, what was a curious thing called an H.T. He found that was lively, by grasping each lead in one hand. And he felt more miserable. Here was this wonderful box and ho couldn't fathom its secrets. The carrier had turned and was making his way back across the heather. With tears streaming down his face, Jim ran after him. "Hey!" he sobbed. "Take—take this back. I can't work it! It's no good to me." The carrier was a largo man, with a scanty moustache which seemed to bo nearly falling off. But though he looked funny, ho was kind-hearted . and sympathetic. "What's up, me lad ? What's t'matter ?" Jim explained.

" Let's 'ave a look." The box was examined, with many ah's and oh's from the carrier. "I have a newv 'at knows all about them there," he said at last. "I'll bring him up wi' me next week. We'll maks it work!"

The carrier was as good as his word, and his nephew, a towny young chap with very cracked patent shoes and a bowler hat, both of which Jim thought rather curious, made short work of the difficulties. He was a man of few words

"A long pole," he said. There wasri t one, so without moro ado he and Jirn went and cut a young lancewood. "On the roof," he said, and up he went, patent shoes and all. "Old bucket for earth," said he, and before Jim could find one he had unearthed something and was digging furiously outside the window. Indeed, it was no sooner said than done and within a very short time Jim was listening to wireless. True, it was only a lecture on economics, but it vfes wireless, and that was enough. "It caps me!" said the shepherd when he was induced to listen, and Mrs. Gawthorp thought it was unholy. ' . But Jim sat and listened and draiirc it all in. And he was not lonely any more; he had hundreds of friends, ail ready to talk, play or sing just for ms benefiti