Children's Corner.

Otago Witness, Issue 1582, 18 March 1882, Page 28

Children's Corner.

OUR NEW WALK

For once I have done right. I always used to think that if I stuck to it, and tried to do what was right, I would hit it some day ; but at last I pretty nearly gave up all hope, and was beginning to believe that, no matter what I did, some of the grown-up folks would tell me that my conduct was such. But I have done a real useful thing that was just what father wanted, and he has said that he would overlook it this time. Perhaps you think that this" was not very encouraging to a boy ; but if you had been told to ' come upstairs with me my;Bon' as often as I have been, just because you had tried to do right, and hadn't exactly managed to suit people, you would be very glad to hear your father say that for once he would dvariook it, Did you ever play you were a ghost ? I don't think much of ghosts, and wouldn't be a bit afraid if I was to see one. There was once a ghdst that used to frighten people dreadfully by hanging himself to a hook in the wall. He was one of those tall white ghosts, and they are the very worst kind there is. This one used to come into the spare bedroom of the house where he lived before he was dead, and after walking round the room, and making as if he was in dreadfully low spirits, he would take a rope out of his pocket, and hang himself to a clothes-hook just opposite the bed, and the person who was in the bed would faint away with fright, and pull the bedclothes over his head, and lie in the most dreadful agony until morning, when he would get up, and people would say, * Why how dreadful y«u look, your hair is all grey and you are white as any sheet.' One time a man came to stay at the house who wasn't afraid of anything, and he said, ' I'll fix that ghost of yours ; I'm a terror on wooden wheels when any ghosts are around, I am.' So he was put to sleep in the room, and before he went to bed he loosened the hook, so that it would come down very easy, and then he sat up in bed and read till 12 o'clock. Just when the clock struck the ghost came in and walked up and down as usual, and finally got out his rope and hung himself; but as soon as he kicked away the chair he stood on when he hung himself, down came the hook, and the ghost fell all in a heap on the floor, and sprained his ankle, and got up and limped away, dreadfully ashamed, and nobody ever saw him again. Father has been having the f rontgarden walk fixed with an asphalt pavement. Asphalt is something like molasses, only four times as sticky when it is new. After a while it grows real hard, only ours hasn't grown very hard yet. I watched the men put it down, and father said, 'Be careful and don't step on it until it gets hard, or you'll stick fast in it and can't ever get out again. I'd like to see half a dozen meddlesome boys stuck in it, and serve them right.' As soon as I heard dear father mention what he'd like, I determined he should have his wish, for there is nothing that is more delightful to a good boy than to please his father.' That afternoon I mentioned to two or three boys that I knew were pretty bad boys that our melons were ripe, and that father was going to pick them in a day or two. The melon patch is at the back of the house, and after dark I dressed myself in one of mother's nightgowns, and hid in the wood-shed. About 11 o'clock I heard a noise, and looked out, and there were six boys coming in the back gate, and going for the melon patch. I waited till they were just ready to begin, and then I came out and said, in a hollow and protuberant voice, ' Beware !' ■They dropped the melons, and started to run, but they conldn't get to the back gate without passing close to me, and I knew they wouldn't try that. So they started to run round the house to the front gate, and I ran after them. When they reached the new front walk, they seemed to stop all of a sudden, and two or three of them fell down. I didn't wait to hear what they had to say, but went quietly back, and got into the house through the kitchen window, and went upstairs to my room. I could hear them whispering, and now and then one or two of them would cry a little ; but I thought it wouldn't be honourable to listen to them, so I went to sleep. In the morning there were five boys stuck in the asphalt, and frightened 'most to death. I got up early and called father, and told him there seemed to be something the matter with Ms new walk. When he came out and saw five boys caught in the new pavement, and an extra pair of shoes that belonged to another boy who had wriggled out of them, and gone away and left them, he was the most astonished man you ever saw. I told him how I had caught the boys stealing melons, and had played I was a ghost and frightened them away, and he said that if I'd help the coachman pry the boys out he would overlook it. So he sat upon the piazza and overlooked the coachman and me while we pried the boys out, and they came out awfully hard, and the asphalt is full of pieces of trousers and things. I don't believe it will ever be a handsome walk; but whenever father looks at it he will think what a good boy I have been, which will give him more pleasure than a hundred new asphalt walks.— Jimmy Brown, in Harper's Young Folks.