FRANKUS SPANKUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 690, 15 June 1929, Page 31

FRANKUS SPANKUS

One day Frankus Spankus the Bakerman got an order for a man-pie. “Make me a man-pie. please,” said the*Customer, “and make it good, for I intend to eat it.” “My man-pie is all good,” said j Frankus Spankus the Bakerman. : "When will you have him, .on Tues- J day, Wednesday, or Friday, or Satur- ; “On the earliest Tuesday, please,” j; said the Customer, and he turned on a heel and a toe and walked in high : steps down the street. "Today is the earliest Tuesday.” said Frankus Spankus the Bakerman. "If I am to have customers, I must please them the best I can.” So he made his dough, a very pretty pile of it, and began punching it with his left hand and poking it with his right. “Humf, sqush. Humf, sqush.” Then. “Poof, poof,” said the dough in a puffy little voice. “That’s the sign,” said Frankus Spankus the Bakerman. “That’s the sign!” He laid the dough flat out on the bread board and rolled and patted it and cut out the man-pie. First he made the bead, then the arms, then the body, the legs, two raisin eyes, a smile, and three buttons on the waistcoat. "There!” said Frankus Spankus the Bakerman. “There you are! You will bo a good man-pie when the oven is through with you.” lie put the manpie carefully in a pan and slipped him into the hot oven to finish. When the time came to take him out, he opened the door and peeped with one eye into the oven. What lie saw with one eye made him look again with two. For there was liis own man-pie sitting up in the pan and frowning! “Bake me longer: my head is too soft,” said the man-pie in a hot, puffy voice. So Frankus Spankus the Bakerman closed the oven door right away and left the man-pie to bake for another two minutes. When he opened the door again he looked with both eyes instead of one. The man-pie was lying in the pan and kicking his legs straight up in the air. "Bake me longer; my legs are too soft,” said the man-pie, more puffy than before. So Frankus Spankus the Bakerman closed the oven door right away. He came back in two minutes. “No nonsense this time,” said Frankus Spankus the Bakerman as he opened the oven and put the pan on the table. There was the man-pie, looking properly at the ceiling. He was smiling as if he had never frowned in liis life, and all three buttons were still in a neat row on liis waistcoat. “A good man-pie,” said Frankus Spankus the Bakerman, tying it to the table leg with a piece of ribbon. Soon came the Customer, to get Ins man-pie on the earliest Tuesday. “Ready, sir,” said Frankus Spankus the Bakerman, and lie untied the ribbon and brought out the man-pie by the hand, “Here he is, sir: all ready, sir: and he’s good, sir. 1 hope, sir.” “Thank you, sir,” said the Customer, as lie paid the Bakerman some money for his trouble. Then he put the manpie into his mouth, feet first, and walked in high steps down the street and i \ mnd the corner. Fran kus Spankus turned toe and heel and walked back into liis kit- , chen. And the Customer told his : friends about the man-pie, and now ’ Frankus Spankus lias to make twenty every day of the week.

Rive Mackie. Devonport: And \did you keep the paper cap. Rive? Pap* r caps are magic; then can bring back the partv. David will soon be able to sit beside you at table and hold his own spoon. Audrey Morrison, Whangarei: betters which do not reach me on or before each Wednesday are answered the following week, Audrey. Yours was in plenty ol time. The Printer Man calls at the Hollow Tree each Thursday. No, I do not save stamps. Yours must be an interesting col lee ti on. Eiva Thorpe. Birkenhead: Your painting has arrived, Elva. Congratulations on your success at school. The Little Thought says you will be top of your class some day. Roy Alan McNeil, Coromandel: That is a very funny story. Roy. Thank you for tlie poem, too. We are all glad that you have found your way to Happy Town. Ernest Humberstone. Rotowaro: 1 hope you have quite recovered, Ernest. Too many of mv Sunbeams have b< er, ill. Yes, thank you, I am quite well. It must be the Happy Town air, 1 think. Your football team should be called “The Invincibles.'* . , . , Isobel Macdonald, Waiuku: '1 he Litt.e Thought felt very sad when I told him that you still don’t like milk puddings, Isobel, because lie wants you to grow , big and strong. When I was a little | girl I used to say: “Old rice pudding! | None for me, thank you. ’ Kut now i ! would rather have rice pudding than I fruit salad. And your little duck has I died too? Yes, lam sure it must have i fretted for its playmate. . 5 Dent Street. Whangarei: Oh. dear me, ! an unsigned letter, and I can't _renaem- ! her which Sunbeam lives at _•> Dent j Street. Alice Williams lives at 7? Mountain Road, Epsom, Auckland, but I de ! not know if she used to be in \\ hangai rei. Supposing you ask her. Xo. 5? Leslie Waller. Penrose: Paddhne * Through puddles go Charlie and Guy, "u----i young Leslie Waller still keeps lus fee I dry The Little Thought has made ani other poem for you, Leslie. Joyce Lodge. Takapuna: Many r.ianks Joyce. Your painti - The poem, have all been safely deliverec bv the Pixie Postmen. . Beulah June Garland. Ellershe: Tli. : wee girl is now sitting with the Dawi ' Ladv under the Happiness Tree. You S painting is verv pretty, little Miss June Nancy Wader,' Penrose: Oh, yes, i have read “The Little Larrikin" man; j times over, Nancy. When I was a httl i girl, a Saturday did not seem like Saturday without an Ethel Turner book ! I am glad you are sending the Happ 1 Town pair.: to your cousin in the bospi ! tal. Yes. Gloria s poems are full c j promise. Jean Me Indoe and Jean Buck 1 ley will be glad to be remembered also.