BILLY BEAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3913, 12 March 1929, Page 78

BILLY BEAR.

(Special for the Otago Witness.) XIX.

After Billy’s remarkably good behaviour over the children’s hospital and his giving the money out of his box to them, you will quite understand that we became very proud of him; and of course the more proud we were of him, the more proud he was of himself (which is not as things should be, really!) so at last I said we should have to be ordinary ” with him again, or there would be no holding him when he got into mischief, as he would most certainly, before very long.

“Well, Munimie ” said Rosemary, “ You can’t suddenly be sort of ordinary with the poor fellow when he’s being so good. He’ll have to do something wrong before we can punish him for it!” This, of course, was quite true, and I found it difficult to make Rosemary understand that it isn’t good for anyone to have too much fuss made of them, however wonderful they are. Fluffy, meantime, was following in his big brother’s footsteps and looking very pious and conceited .

The day before yesterday was, as you know, New Year’s Day—a day upon which people who haven’t very strong minds make up those minds not to do all sorts of things they want to—and I came across a most extraordinary looking document hung upon the wall of the boot cupboard where the animals sleep at night. It was written on brown paper, apparently with a skewer dipped in blacking, and it said:

1929. Fluffy will not make a gargling noise when he eats his soup because Rosemary and Mrs — doesn’t like it, and he will not splash Billy by stepping. into his bread and milk.

“ Fluffy will not clean his paws with blacking because they are not boots and every time he does it Cook says things about animals what are not respeckful to animals, especliully bears. “ Billy will not do anything wrong at all for a whole year and he has not done much wrong for a whole month anyhow. Signed: Billy and Fluff}' Bear.” (The spelling was worse than-I have shewn!) Did you ever hear such a list of good resolutions?