Our Boys and Girls.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 996, 3 April 1891, Page 6

Our Boys and Girls.

IN MISCHIEF. A crack in the vase and the roses alii scattered, O snarl in the knitting, a hunt for the hall; The ink-bottle shattered, the carpet bespattered : Dirt-pies in the hall. The fruit on the table by tiny teeth bitten ; Wet prints of wet fingers on window and door; Poor grandmamma’s cap as a coat for the kitten, Soft gurgles of laughter, a sunshine glancing, As somebody flits in and out like a bird; Strange accidents chancing wherever the dancing Small footsteps are heard.

‘ Come Ethel, my baby, your grave eyes up--1 lifting, Stand here by my side, do you know the wee sprite Who into some ever-new mischief is drifting From morning till right.

A smile like a sunbeam, so coy and caressing— She smiles in my face like the witch that she is ; No need of more guessing. ‘My trouble, my blessing, Come give me a kiss.’

‘KIT PIGEON.’ Will Holden was small for his years and lame, says Golden Days, and not only that, but just a little peculiar in his ways —‘ queer ’ the other boys called him. But, perhaps because of his infirmity and that he could not play boisterous games, Will was fond of books, and though only 12 knew a great deal more than, to look at him, one would have thought likely. The other boys found this out, and quite often used to tease him with questions more or less difficult —‘ to stump him,’ as they said. One day at recess Tom Harris, a trifle envious of Will for being the leader in almost every study, began again plying him perplexing questions mental arithmetic, capes, capitals, boundaries, facts in history, and so Will was good-natured, and stood the bantering answering so readily as rather to disconcert Tom, till the question, ‘ Who discovered America ?’ he gave the answer. ‘ A boy named Kit Pigeon.’ ‘ Kit Pigeon !’ burst out Tom. And all in a chorus said, * Kit Pigeon !’ with the greatest scorn imaginable. ‘ Stumped,’said Tom ; ‘you’re stumped tor once, Will Holden.’ ‘ Oh, no,’ said Will. But the others declared he was, and made such a noise jeering that the teacher came to the door to see what it all meant. Tom Harris, glad enough, I expect, for once to get the better of his little rival, spoke up and told what had happened. ‘As if every boy didn’t know better than that,’ said he, exultingly. ‘Kit Pigeon, in- ‘ Stop a bit! stop a bit!’ said Mr Graham, with a smile. ‘So Will says Kit Pigeon discovered America ! Well, he’s not so wrong, after all, as you seem to think. Now, who do you say it was, Tom V . The reply came promptly—‘Christopher Columbus,’ and all the others chimed in:— «Why, of course, it wa3 Christopher Columbus 1’ , _ . «Ah, just so,’ said my Graham. But Columbus was a boy once, wasn’t he ?’ ‘ Yes.’

They all agreed to that. 1 And so I suppose they called him something else besides for short once in a while. Isn’t that likely ?’ The boys thought it was, and one of them whose name, as it happened, was Christopher—said most of the boys had nicknamed him ‘ Christy,’ but that his Uncle Jack always called him ‘ Kit.’ • * That accounts,’ said Mr Graham, for part of Will’s extraordinary statement. As for the Pigeon, that does seem rather strange; but Columbus’ real name was Colon, which means pigeon. So, you see, it was the boy Kit Pigeon which grew up to be known, as the fashion was in those days, by the Latin name, Christopher Columbus.’ Since then Tom has stopped trying to * stump ’ Will Holden. —a GUEER SAYINGS. One Side of School Life.—* What do you like best about school, Georgie ?’ * Not gettin’ caught whisperin’.’ A Precocious Scholar —* I say gram ina, see what I can do. I can spell “ cat with my eyes shut 1’ Willie —* Why do they cut up the ground so with the plough V Farmer —* That’s so as we can sow the seed. Willie —* Then do you sew up the holes again ?’ * I don’t see ’em,’ said Tommie, looking out of the window after the rain. ‘See what?’ asked his mother. * The cats and dogs. Papa said it was raining ’em.’ The other day a couple of little girls came to a physician’s office to be vaccinated. One of them undertook to speak for the other, and explained: ‘ Doctor, this is mv sister. She is too young to know her left arm from her right, so mamma washed both of them.’ ‘ Now, Tommy,’ said that young man’s mother, after a heated encounter in which he had come out second best, ‘ say your prayers right away and get into bed.’ ‘ I already said ’em, maw,’ answered Tommy, ‘ as soon as I found out you meant to gimme a lickin’, but it didn’t work.’ Mamma: ‘ Why, Susie, you’ve offered your candy to everybody but little brother. Why didn’t you hand it to him?’ Susie (with innocent candour): * Because, mamma, little brother always takes it.’ Willie’s Good Reason.—Willie (down in the country, writing home to his father) : * And I have been a good boy, too, papa. I haven’t run away for a week.’ Willie’s Mamma (adding a postscript) : ‘ Willie haß been confined to the house for a week with a very sore toe.