"THE NILLENNIUM"

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1745, 16 August 1905, Page 12

"THE NILLENNIUM"

Is there not a little sermon iin the following, which we take from the columns of a contemporary:— “See here,” said Dilly to Freddie Burr, as she pushed the toes of a pair of stout new shoes through the fence. “Where did you get ’em?” asked Freddie.

" “And see here!” continued Dilly, bobbing up for an instant, to show the pretty hood that covered her yeHow hair, and touching it significantly with her finger. “Where did you get ’em?” repeated Freddie.

“My pa worked and bought ’em. and brought ’em home; an’ they didn’t get into nobody’s barrel either,” explained Dilly with great pride and little regard for grammar, pressing her face close against the fence for a prolonged interview.

“You see, Freddie Burr,” began Dilly, “the Nillennium has come to our house.” - ! “The Nillennium !”

“It’s a pretty long word,” explained Dilly, complacently, “but it means good' times. Anyhow, that’s what ma. called it, and I guess she knows. It was just this way, Freddie Burr. When you told me Mr Barney had all our good things down to his store in his rum barrels, I just went down there right off and asked for ’em —me and Toddles.” “You didn’t!” exclaimed horrified Freddie.

“Did too,” declared Dilly, with an emphatic nod. “Well., he wouldn’t give, us one of them, and was as cross as anything. So then pa got up from behind the stove and walked home with us. He didn’t, scold a bit, but. he just "sat down before the fire this way, and thanked and thinked. At last he put his hand in one pocket, but there was nothing there; then he put it in his other pocket and found 10 cents, and he went out and bought some-meat for supper. "When ma. got. home he talked to her and they both cried. I don’t know what for, ’lees it was because we didn’t get the things out of the barrel. Alnd ma hugged me ’most to death that, night and kissed me lots, she did. Well, my pa got some work the other day, and brought, some money, and he has found a place where he works every day. He bought, all these things, and he said his little hoy and girl shall have things like other boys and girls. So you know what the Nillennium means Freddie Burr, when anybody asks you, and you can tell them that Dally Kerne spained it to you.”