MIKE’S WONDERFUL FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1930, Page 24 (Supplement)

MIKE’S WONDERFUL FIRE.

TO KEEP WARM IN THE JUNGLE. It was unusually 'cold in the jungle, and the animals were quite distressed about it. They wondered. what they could do if their climate changed, and Mike the monkey said they would be obliged to have fires. “Fires!” they cried with horror. “Fires burn!” . “Not if you know how to handle them properly,” said Mike, who had watched the men in the plantation keeping themselves warm with fires without burning themselves. Well, the cold continued, the animals were miserable, and Mike was determined to have a fire. He looked round fpr a suitable place and rfound one by the side of a clump of rushes. They were beautiful rushes., all tipped with red, and Mike blew upon them and fanned them with his arms, just as he had seen the men doing. He was disappointed because they would not blaze, but he kept himself beautifully warm. “I shall have a fire,” announced Prim the Parrot. “If Mike can manage one without burning himself, so can I.” She chose a bush of red flowers for her lire, and she flapped her w’ings at it in the hope of getting a blaze until she became so hot that she was afraid of catching a cold! Then all the animals collected round Mike’s fire and Prim’s fire, and they blew and flapped and waved till they were as warm as toast. After a time, the weather changed, the sun came out, and there wag not need of fires.

“Say what you like,” remarked Prim, but there’s something I don’t understand about Mike’s fire. Why won’t it blaze?”

“Don’t ask eilly questions,” cried Mike. “Be thankful that you can always have a fire when you want it.” Quite simple, isn’t it 2