The Children's Corner.

Otago Witness, Issue 1422, 22 February 1879, Page 23

The Children's Corner.

CHILDHOOD'S PLEASURES. (Written for the Children's Corner.) While the days are warm and sunny, Like bees they roam in search of honey j In happy bands they leave the town, And pull the long caladies down. Then, in the bush, for nests they look, While some are wading in the brook ; And from the trees above their head, Pull fuchsia berries ripe and red. And some are gone to leaf y bowers, To deck their brow with, fair wild flowers ; The robin's there, a welcome guest, The bird that children like the best ; With, bold free hop, and glancing eye, He is so tame and yet so shy ; And pretty birds are singing there, Like happy children free from care. The little lark is soaring high, Warbling his song in the bright blue sky, He see the sun sink iv the west, Ere he ceases hiß song and goes to rest ; Like little children who love to roam, Late in the gloaming come singing home. W. A, Dunedin sth February 18/9. ANOTHER OF TIM'S STORIES ( Written for the Children's Comer.) By Uncle Harry. I hope the readers of the " Children's Corner" will not be unwilling to renew their acquaintance with Tiny Tim, although it is almost a year since they heard of him. You will remember that he had gone to spend his Christmas holiday s at a friend's station, and how he and Phil, the genial overseer, contrived to frighten Joe, the cook, almost out of his life by means of an enchanted pudding. Well the holidays came to an end at last, and Tim was obliged to return to school. His sorrow at leaving the station was lessened by the knowledge that mamma had caused a plum cake, of the richest and best, to be made fur him, that papa had given him a shining golden sovereign for pocket money, and that he was to ride into Kilmoro on "Tricksey Wee," the pony, with Phil for a companion; and a very merry ride they had, at least when Tim had swallowed that hard lump in his throat that would rise as he looked back and saw papa and mamma standing at the slip rails and waving good bye. First of all, as they were riding along quietly, Phil's big kangaroo dog, "Barney," started a wallaby from the fern, and away they went, helter skelter. Over logs and creeks they jumped, and had a good race across a level flat where "Barney" soon closed on the wallaby and brought it down. Then they hobbled their horses with stirrupleathers and Bat down by a clear water hole under the shade of scented wattle boughs to cat their lunch. Just as they had finished Tim put his hand on Phil's arm and whispered :—: — " Look there," — and following the direction of his finger Phil saw a huge black snake swimming in graceful undulatious across the pool. Presently the man had possessed himself of a good Btout stick and waited till the reptile gained the bank and was stealthily crawling away, then a sharp beavy blow settled his career. Between such various delays it was late when they reached the town, and as Phil had to return to the station the same night they rode straight to the master's house. Soon the girls were out admiring the pony, and Phil took Tim for a race along the road to show off its paces. But there was no time to waste, so Tim regretfully gave up the reins, and as he did so said, " Take good care of him Phil, till I come back." "I will that, master Tim, andnow goodbye." " Goodbye old fellow," said Tim, and as the man squeezed his hand tightly, Tim felt that abominable lump in his throat again. Indeed Phil's own eyes were a little dim aa he bent down his goodnatured face and I said, " Keep up a good heart, my boyj there's

1 lots of fun in store for you when you come back, and it's only three months to wait you know." So the holidays were over and Tim settled down to steady work again. Amongst the boys who attended this Bchool were to be found the usual proportion of good and bad, but there was only one that Tim really and thoroughly disliked. This fellow was a big strong boy of fifteen or sixteen, with a flit fair face, snd quantities of yellow hair. He could knock down any boy in the school, was top in the fifth class, and was general "boss" and bully. His name was Jack Oarlton. He had taken a delight in teasing and annoying Tim, probably because he was not very strong nor well able to retaliate. Now it happened that the master had got an idea into his head that some of the senior boys were cheating over their arithmetic. Tha reasons for his suspicions were that though the boys did their sums remarkably well when they worked them from their own sum books, yet when examples of precisely the same kind were placed upon the black board very few of the boys could work them at all. The fact was that Jack Carlton had by some means become possessed of a key to the arithmetic, and from this he copied the sums, allowing a few particular friends to copy again from him. You may be sure Tim reaped no benefit from the key, but although he lost marks for his arithmetic sums, he made a larger per centage on those from the board. The master had noticed this, and did not for one minute suspect him of cheating, indeed he had always found the boy to be honest in his school-work. One morning when prayers were over (for we used to have prayers in those good oldfashioned days) the fifth class was ordered to take slates and stand opposite the black board. This was something new, and every one was on the lookout for a row. As Jack Carlton was on his way up he tripped against the form just opposite t) Tim's seat, and had to put his hand on the desk to Bave himself. When the class were assembled the master told them of his suspicions, and said that he meant to search the desks. Accordingly he went from one to the other, and every boy looked exceedingly surprised when he pissed Jack's desk without finding anything suspicious. At Tim's desk, however, he paused, took out a book, and as he looked at the title page a frown like a thunder cloud settled on his brow. Tim was ordered to stand out in the middle of the room, and the master expressed his extreme surprise and annoyance that such a book as this should be found in the school, particularly in Tim's possession. The master then told Tim to give some explanation of the matter. Then Tim said, "That book does not belong to me, sir. I never saw it before, I have never used it and don't want to." "Do you know who it belongs to 1" was the next question. "No sir." All this was strictly true. Tim did not know the owner, though he had strong suspicions. The master then asked each boy separately if the book was his, and all denied ifcj — e ven Jack whose bold face did nob flush in the least as ho told the lie. The frown on the master's face grew blacker as he said, | " Now the case wears a worse aspect than I ever. Not only is some boy guilty of cheating, but of telling a downright deliberate falsehood. lam afraid there is more concerned in this affair. Certainly more than one boy has been copying his sums lately, and as certainly more than one must have been aware of the existence of this key. Now, let me tell you, although this book has been found in Tim's desk I do not think him guilty of cheating and lying. I Bincerly hope he is not. For the present I will take possession of this book, and mark my words, boys, in some way or other its owner will be found out And now, I will give you a sum to do, and by that I can easily find who has been guilty of cheating at anyrate." The boys were separated so as to make copying impossible, and the sum was put on the board. Jack .Carlton did it right, so did Tim, and one other almost correctly. The rest of the class had not even a notion of how to set about it. I do not like to write about canings and punishments, so I leave you to imagine what befell these cowardly fellows. I find I shall not have space to tell you the rest of the story now, but next week you shall know How it all Ended.