HOW IS MARY'S SISTER ? By Murray Aston.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 45

HOW IS MARY'S SISTER ? By Murray Aston.

Where we reside, not a hundred miles from Dunedin, one of our neighbours is a particularly .kind man who has a great love for children. He is the owner of a very fine garden, which in the season is stocked with a profusion of fruit of all kinds. Raspberries, plums— all sorts, sizes, and colours, from a deep purple suffused with a hazy grey bloom, to a glorious golden yellow, ranging In size from a saucy little round fellow not much bigger than a nut to an imposing oblong giant of aldcrmanic proportions, one of which would suffice for any child of ordinary appetite, if such a phenomenon could be found where fruit was in question. Our young people were always glad of an excuse to visit our neighbour, and great was the joy of two children we know who were sent one day to inquire as to the welfare of his housekeeper's Bister, who chanced to be unwell. " Go," they were told, " to Mr B 's and ask how Mary's sister is ? " the inquiry being made on behalf of a friend.

The message was duly delivered, and the messengers were invited inside, and presently came out with pockets filled with rosy apples and plums just off the trees.

The next day two other children, members of the same family, were sent to make the same inquiry, and they also met with a similar reception, returning laden with fruit. But some other children of their acquaintance thought it very haid that they should have had all this luck, as they called it, and asked for full particulars as to why they got all these good things ; and when they heard that it came about in reply to the query as to the welfare of Mary's sister, two youDg gentlemen resolved to try this " open sesame " on their own account, so starting for the house, they boldly knocked at the door, which was opened by Mary herself.

11 Well ? " she asked. " Please, ma's love," breathlessly said tho

leader of the pair, "and how's Mary'fl bister ? " " " Who is your mamma ? " replied Mary. "Mrs 0 " returned the urchin. And as it happened that Mary and Mrs 0 were perfect strangers, Mary looked upon the youDg gentlemen with an air of perplexity for a momenx ; and then the position dawned upon her, but after a little hesitation she resolved to ask them in, where they were treated the same as the others. And when they returned home to their mother boasting childlike of what they bad done, Mrs C did not feel altogether comfortable about it, and could not decide what to do under the circumstances. How would you have acted, gentle reader, had you been in her place ?