YOUNG FOLKS' CORNER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1291, 26 November 1896, Page 16

YOUNG FOLKS' CORNER.

THE BLUE-GHiNA DOG.

[By Sheila.]

"He is the very ugliest dog I ever saw. Why do you keep him, Claire, when you have such heaps of pretty things ? Look at his staring eyes ! If he' were my dog, I should call him Goggler." The blue-china bulldog that stood on the cabinet understood every word of this unkind speech. He knew he was ugly, but, still, it hurts to be told so in plain, unvarnished language. It is so much easier to bear things that are not spoken. His mistress laughed and pretended to pat his blue-china back.

«' He belongs to a period—before our time, Amy—when people went crazy over ugly bits of china. I dare say poor old Goggler was quite fashionable once, and had his admirers. You must not despise him ; bulldogs are said ( to be very faithful creatures, and this one is true blue, you see." With that she dusted him with her pockethandkerchief. It tickled, but Goggler knew it was kindly meant, and bore it with firmness. Indeed, at that moment his gratitude was such that he could have died for his young mistress. "Now, that little figure is really exquisite,'' said Amy, pointing to a blue-and-white china maiden, with a wide-brimmed hat, holding a basket of flowers. " That is a little Dutch girl; she came from Delft. I value her very much because sho was a present," said Claire; "but I'm fond of my old blue dog, too," she added,

smiling. When the two bad gone away, Goggler began to reflect. Once—how long ago he had forgotten —there stood on the writingtable a little witch-woman in a long cloak and a tall hat, and she seemed to be riding a broomstick. As a matter of fact, the witchwoman was a pen-wiper—but this, too, Goggler had forgotten, for it was some time since she had flown, perhaps on her thoroughbred broomstick, into the dustbin. The} had had several conversations together, and one thing that the witchwoman told him Goggler suddenly recollected.

"In eTery day," she said, " there is a certain magic minute when, if you wish for anything, your wish will certainly come true. But nobody knows when the exact minute is, and 'tis a wonderful piece of luck if you light upon it." The blue dog turned this over carefully in his mind.

"If I could only hit upon the right minute," he thought, '* I might repay my dear little mistress for her kindness. The difficulty is that one does not know whether it comes in the day or in the night." All the same, Goggler set about wishing, and kept on valiantly for three days, sleeping as ltttle as he could. At the end of this time he was as tired as if he had trotted forty miles. "I have spoken to you so often, but you won't answer," sighed a gentle voice, and the blue dog gave a stait. It was the little Dutch maiden who spoke. She looked extremely pretty, but rather fragile, and it struck Goggler that she was worried about something.

" I am sure I beg your pardon/' said he ; " I am very absent-minded. Is there anything I can do for you ?" "I should like to ask your advice," said the Dutch figure anxiously. " You know the Chinaman who etauds on a pedestal behind me? Well, he says he is tired of being stuck up there, and that he wants to c;et down, and go out into the world. 11l will move a little to the right, he thinks he can climb down without breaking himself, but

then I am afraid of moving to the light. I am dreadfully near the edge as it is." " Don't you move a step !" cried the blue dog warmly ; "the Chinaman is a bully ; I know him of old. Let him stay where he is—the world doesn't want him." The Chinaman's eyes rolled with rage. " My cap and pigtail I' he cried, " but it will be the worse for the young woman if she doesn't get out of my way." Goggler showed his teeth in such r.n unmistakable manner that the Chinaman said J no more. | " Don't be frightened," went on the blue dog to the Dutch maiden ; " bullies are always cowards. I am glad you spoke to me ; our mistress prizes you very highly, and no wonder, for you are so pretty." At which the little blue-and-white lady blushed with pleasure. Goggler set to work again wishing, and sighed to think that the lucky minute might have passed while he was talking. lUwas a great effort to keep his mind continually upon this one point, but he was a dog of immense determination, and, as his owner had laughingly said, true blue. | "The Chinaman says he will come down in spite of us all," whispered the Dutch maiden more than once, but her words fell upon deaf ears. Goggler was too much taken up with his own thoughts, and the flower-girl, being a timid little thing, did not like to be troublesome. So she smothered her fears as well as she could, and tried not to shake when she heard the Chinaman growling behind her. " I was happier in dear old Delft," she sighed ; "we were all Dutch there, and nobody got into a tem*per or wanted to go out and see the world. And the country was so delightfully flat—you never saw one of those dreadful, dangerous hills there."

The blue dog was beginning to despair ; he had wished several thousand wishes, but he felt quite certain that not once had he come upon the magic minute. He was convinced in his china heart that had he done so, something would have told him.

"I wonder if that witch-woman was making fun of me?" he thought. One evening, Goggler fell asleep at his post ; at least, he was dozing. All at once a cry of terror roused him. It came from the Dutch girl. " Help ! help ! lam falling 1" she shrieked, and the blue dog saw that the discontented Chinaman had been as good, or as bad, as his word. He had come lumbering down from his pedestal and tumbled up against the flower-girl. It all happened like a flash of lightning. Goggler saw his little friend rolling helplessly towards the edge of the cabinet ; in another moment she would be over. He remembered how their mistress prized the blue-and-white maiden, and cried heroically— " Oh, that I could perish instead of her !" The next moment there were two distinct crashes, and the Dutch girl, who had just stopped rolling, on the very edge of the abyss, shivered and shook until the housemaid opened the shutters. Then the Chinaman was discovered lying on his face on the hearthrug, perfectly * unhurt, even to his nose. But the blue dog was beyond the aid of the '. most skilful mender; he had struck against the fender, and was smashed into what Eliza, the housemaid, called " smitherems." He had hit upon the magic moment, and his wish had been granted. Poor old Goggler ! If his mistress had only known, she would have said : " He was true blue to the end I" Little Folks.