FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 329, 10 July 1914, Page 6

FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

MY VERY STRANGE RELATIONS, I’m sure that my relations seem , Just made to puzzle me! Look at Papa—he takes no lumps y Of sugar in his tea, Though Mother wouldn’t scold him 11 He dared to ask for three! And Mother’s also very strange. For when she goes about _,, The house, she never makes a noise, Although she’s free to shout, Or even to beat the saucepan-lids Upon the stairs no doubt, b My auntie Nell is just as odd — She passes by the shops ' Where splendid almond-rock is sold, And lovely acid-drops. She has a penny in her purse, But there that penny stops! Yes, my relations really do Seem made to puzzle me, For I’m a thoughtful little boy Of seven, don’t you see, And I consider that they waste Each opportunity! W RIDDLES TO RIDDLE. When is a doctor most annoyed?— When he is out of patients. Why is a poor acquaintance better than a rich one? —A friend in need is a friend indeed. Why is a man’s face shaved in winter like a celebrated fur? —Because it is a chinchilly (a). Why is a defeated army like wool? ■—Because it is worsted. What is the centre of gravity? — The letter V. What is the end of doom?— The letter M. QUEEN WILHELMINA. When the Queen of Holland was a little girl, she did not find it very pleasant to be a Queen and have no playmates. One day, when she was playing with her dolls, she pretended that one of them was naughty. “Now, to punisfli you,” she said, “I shall make you a. Queen, and you will always have to behave nicely and remember who you are and be lonely.” The little Queen was not always good herself. One day her English governess was angry with her, and as a punishment told' her to draw a map. Wilhelmina did, as she was told, but! she drew Holland very large and made the British Isles just two little dots. ' The governess said nothing, but next time they "had a geography lesson she . made the little Queen learn the names of all the British possessions. This, was tit for tat. PICKINGS FROM BABYLAND. Ernest was seven years old and was permitted to remain after Sunday School to hear the sermon. Asked at the dinner table if 4 he remembered the text, he exclaimed: “Remember it.! Why, good gracious! the preached didfn’t remember it himself. He had to get the book and read it.” Little Ruthie was to stay all night with her aunt. When she was ready for bed her aunt said: “Now kneel down and say your prayers, dear.” Ruthie knelt down at her auntie’s knee and bowed her little head. She was silent for some, moments; then ehe looked up with a, worried face and said: “Auntie, I gn;ss you will have to start the tune.” “Come here, Beside,” said a' visitop to the daughter of her hostess, “and tell me how old ydu are.” “Do you mean when I’m at home or when I’m riding on _i street; car?” asked Bessie. Kitty was diniug at ’a neighbours, and when she whs offered the sugar cubes for her coffee she said shyly: “No thank you, I don’t care for sugar unless it’s congratulated.” BRAVE LITTLE MARK. ’ Mark’s father had been three weeks in prison, shut up there by his enemies. Next day he was to be tried, and after that he was sure to be put to death. Mark was only twelve, but he was a clever boy, and used to talk every day to the soldiers outside the prison, so that his father could hear him, but of course they did not know who he was. One day he gave a) letter for the governor of the prison to Jean, one of the two guards. Pierre, the other, was always dozing in the sun. Jean, afiter turning the letter over and over, said, “I had better take you to the governor myself” When they reached tb/e governor’s room they found him away, so Jejan told Mark to wait while he went to find him. As soon as Jean was out of sight, Mark went flying dowm the passage towards his father’s c/ell. In a moment he had drawn tire bolt and opened the door. "Quick, father!” he whispered. “There is only or/e soldier outside, and he is asleep!”. Very carefully Mark unbolted the outer door and peeped .out. As he expected, Piei.Te was fast asleep, and they stole past him softly. Mark had two hors/fes waiting ready Saddled, behind a. wall, so they 1 mouinted and rode off as fast as the wind. When Jdan returned to • the gate a few minutes afterwards he found nobody but Pierre, still asleep and snoring, and it was quite a long time before he even discovered that Mark’s.father had escaped..