Children's Corner.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 4 March 1882, Page 28

Children's Corner.

: A Private Ciroua.

There's g6ing to be a circus here, and I'm going to it; that is if father will let me. Some people think it's wrong to go to a circus, but I don't. Mr Travers says that the mind of man and boy requires circuses in moderation, and that the wicked boys in Sunday-school books who. steal their employer's' money to buy circus tickets wouldn't steal it if their employers, or their fathers or uncles, would give them circus tickets once in a while. I'm sure I wouldn't want to go to a circus every night in the week. All I Bhould want would be to go two or three evenings, and Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. There was once a boy who was awfully fond of going to the circus, and his employer, who was a yery good man. said he'd cure him. So he said (to the boy— ' Thomas, my son, I'm going to hire you to go to the circus every night, I'll pay you three dollars a week, and give you your board and lodging, if you'll go every night except Sunday ; but if you don't go, then you won't get any board or lodging or any money.' And the boy said, ' Oh, you can just bet I'll go !' and he thought everything was lovely ; but after two weeks he got so sick of the circus that he would have given anything to be let stay away. Finally he got so wretched that he deceived his good employer, and stole money from him to buy school-books with, and ran away and went to school. The older he grew the more he looked baok|with horror upon that awful period when he went to the circus every night. Mr Travers says it finally had such an effect upon him that he worked hard all day and read books all night just to keep it out of his mind, The result was that before he knew it he became a very learned and a very rich man. Of course it was very wrong for the boy to steal money to stay away from the circus with, but the story teaohes us that if we go to the circus too much, we shall get tired of it, which is a very solemn thing. We had a private circus at our house last night— at least that's what father called it, and he seemed to enjoy it. It happened in this way. I went into the back parlour in the evening, because I wanted to see Mr Travers. He and Sue always sit there. It was growing quite dark when I went in, and going towards the sofa, I happened to walk against a rockingchair that was rocking all by itself, which, come to think of it, was an awfully curious thing, and I'm going to a& somebody about it. I didn't mind walking into the chair, for it didn't hurt me much, only I knocked it over, and it hit Sue, and she said,

' Oh, my 1 get me something, quick !' and then fainted away. Mr Travers was dreadfully frightened, and said, 'Run, Jimmy, and get the cologne, or the bay -rum, or something.' So I ran up to.Sue's room, and felt round in the dark for her bottle of cologne that she always keeps oil her bureau. I found a bottle litter » uritmto or Iwu. and ran down ami gave it to Mr Tr&vw», and he batued Sub's face aa

well as he could in the dark, and she oame to and said, •Goodness gracious \ do you want to put my eyes out?* „ , „, Just then the front-door bell rang, and Mr Bradford (our new minister) and his wife and three daughters and his son came in. »ue jumped up and ran into the front parlour to light the gas, and Mr Travers came to help her. They just got it lit when the visitors came in, and father and mother came down stairs to meet them. Mr Bradford looked as if he had seen a ghost, and his wife and daughters said, •Oh, my!' and father said, •What on earth!' and mother just burst out laughing, and said, . , •Susan, you and Mr Travera seem to have had an accident with the inkstand.' You never Baw such a sight as thoße poor young people were, I had made a mistake, and brought down a bottle of liquid blacking -the same that I blacked the baby with that time. Mr Travers had put it all over Boa* face, so that she was jet-black, all but a little of one cheek and the end of her nose, and then he had rubbed his hands on Mb own face until he was like an Ethopian leopard, only hd could change his spots if he used soap enough. „ You couldn't have any idea how angry Sue was with me— just as if it was my fault, when all I did was to go up stairs for her, and get a bottle.to bring her to with : and it 1 would have been all right if she hadn't left the blacking bottle on her bureau; and I don't call that tidy, if she is a girl. Mr Travers wasn't a 'bit angry ; but he came up to my room and washed his face, and laughed all the time. And Sue got awfully angry with him, and said she would never speak to him again after disgracing her in that heartless way. So he went home, and I. could hear him laughing all, the way down the street,- and Mr Bradford and his folks • thought that he and Sue had been having a minstrel show, and mother thinks they'll never come to the house again. As for father, he was almost as much amused as Mr Travera, and he said it served Sue right, and he wasn't going to punish the boy to pleaße her, I'm going to try to have another circus Borne day, though this one was all an acci dent, and, of course, I was dreadfuly Borry about it,— Jimmy Brown, in Harpers Young Folks.

Ollie's Dreams.

By Eudoea M. Stonb Bhmstbad. Our Ollie went to his bed With tears just back of his eyeß, And a pain, because, as his sister said, He was ' overly fond of pies,' He dreamed the dreadfullest dreams— As dreadful as they could be ; For a big, big piece of pie, it seems, Is a' bad, bad thing for tea. He dreamed of a terrible snow That fell from an inky sky, And every flake that the winds did blow Was big as a pumpkin pie ! All in a heap 'twas laid, # While the rude winds laughed in glee ; But, oh ! the deep, deep drift that it made Was a Bad, sad thing to see. ' ' Then he thought the summer was dead, And winter would always stay ; ', That an iceberg lddge was his enly bed, And a glacier his home by day. And the sun, too late he rose, ■ And he went to bed too soon, And a long, long icicle hung from the nose , ' Of the cold, cold man-in-the-moon. i

He turned to his Bister ; oh ! How lonely and sad he felt ' When he found she was made of ice and snow, Which a hug would be sure to melt I Just think 0/ the dreams he had, As dreadful as dreams could be ! Oh ! a big, big piece of pie is bad For a small, small boy at tea 1 ■ -St. Nicholas.