FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 325, 23 June 1914, Page 6

FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

A MATCH WITH THE QUARTERSTAFF. One of Robin Hood’s faithful followers was called Friar Tuck, and another was called Little John. This was by way of a joke, for ho was tho tallest of all tlnf merry men who lived in tho greenwood. Friar Tuck was a big, stout fellow too, and used to dispute sometimes with Little John as to which was tho stronger, so one day Little John challenged him to a fight with the quarterstaff, which was a long polo held grasped in tlio middle by both hands. Tho whole hand gathered round the two champions, the Friar rolled up his sleeves and tucked up liis skirts in a way that meant business, and they faced each ether on a level piece oi green grass. Tho -staves whirled and darted, the two fighters advanced and retired, struck and parried, until quite exhausted they both paused to take breath. “By my how, I never saw such superb play, or men so evenly matched,” said Robin Hood. “I declare ye to he tho finest quarterstaff players in broad England, and there is nothing to choose between you.” A BAD OLD WOMAN. Mollio and Sybil had been told that they were never to go out in tho town alone. But one morning they crept out by tho garden-gate and nobody saw them go. Just as they were starting back a very sharp shower came on. “Let’s shelter in this doorway,” Sybil said. Presently, a door opened in the passage, and the children heard a voice say, “Come in, my dears, and get warm by the fire.” And then they saw that a very old woman was beckoning them. Mollie thought it would be rude to refuse, so they went in. But tlm bad old woman never let them warm themselves by the fire. She took them up to a cold room and locked the door. The children were dreadfully frightened. Only Mollie discovered that, outside the window, grew a big pear tree against the wall. She was a rgood climber, and so she went down that tree just like a monkey. But Sybil was too much afraid to try, so Mollie rushed off homo as hard as ever she could go, and Sybil was rescued. It was found out that the wicked old woman used to steal other people’s children, and sell them to men in circuses and travelling shows, so they sent her to prison for the rest of her life.

WHAT THE ITALIANS BELIEVE. It is amusing to hoar of some of tjie things in which the littlo folks of Italy arc taught to believe, though at the same time it is very sad. If a child is suffering agon.es from am injured eye, for instance, his mother docs not take him to the doctor,- but binds a lock of his hair with cotton, and tho little sufferer is told that this will cure him. •A Very bad cold is treated with sniffs of coal dust, and if a child seems to he ailing without stiffic.ont reason his mother thinks that someone has “cast a spell” upon him. All children believe in (lie evil eye. and if a stranger stares at them they thrust out the first and lithe fingers of a thin brown hand, in order to make t'he sign of a pair of horns, which they think will protect them.

If a little girl stammers so badly that even her own sisters and brotLcis can scarcely 5 * u lulersla nd-» what she is trying to say, she is told to hold a pebble under her tongue; and this has some sense in it, since the effort to hold it firmly, and not let it slip down her throat, makes her speak more slowly, and therefore more distinctly. A favorite “cure” for the toothache is to tlirow a liank of twirstf into a saucepan of boiling -water, and jump three times round it in solemn silence. GRETCHEN #NI) THE FROG. Gretclien lived with her grandmother on the edge of a big wood. It was a beautiful wood, full of flowers and birds, and in the very middle was a pond. The first time that Gretcho : found the pond she sat down at the 'edge of it, and looked at the waterlilies. Then a big frog climbed on to it and croaked. Gretclien jumped up with a start. “Don’t be frightened!” the frog said; “I am very unhappy.” “Why are you so unhappy?” Gretchen asked. “It’s those water-lilies!” the frog said. “They will wind their stems round my front door; and illy wife, who is very fat, can’t get out for a swim.” “Well, don’t cry,”- Gretclien said, perhaps I can help you. Suppose l pud up some of the lilies.” Tho frog jumped for joy. He sprung off into the pond and showed her which to pull up. So his wife was able to come out. A few days afterwards Gretclien was in trouble, and cried by the pond. “Tadpoles and fungi! V hat’s the matter?” cried the frog, as lie popped liis head out of the water. “My grandmother is dying of*fever, sobbed Gretclien. “I know what would stop the level ! said tho frog. “Get' three water-lily leaves and tie them round her head, and boil the stalks into tea and make her drink It.” Gretclien sprang up and gathered the leaves, and then ran home and did what tho frog had told her. And the Very next day her grandmother gotbetter.