FOR YOUNG YOLKS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 330, 14 July 1914, Page 6

FOR YOUNG YOLKS.

THE KEEPER AND THE LIONS.

Here is a true story about two lions and a keeper. The cage was divided into two compartments, and the keeper was going to wash the two lions, whose names were Jim and Jupiter. He decided to take Jim first, and because Jupiter followed, he carelessly struck him on the head, which sent him back into the other part of the cage. After getting the other lion ready for his bath he threw his whip down. Seeing this Jim sprang at him, knocked him down, and mauled him frightfully. After lying still for some time the keeper moved and tried to reach his whip, but the lion seeing this again sprang at him, and tore his flesh badly. The keeper now heard the other lion Jupiter coming, and he began to wonder if he would pay him back for the blow hejiad given him. Jupiter prepared to spring, but to his surprise, instead of springing upon him he flew at the other lion, and after a long struggle killed it. Jupiter then came and looked at his keeper, and went into the other part of the cage, the keeper was found by one of his friends and taken home. In a few weeks he recovered from his wounds, but he was always very kind to the animals afterwards, and never struck them thoughtlessly. A LITTLE HERO. "Don't go outside the gates till I come back," said nurse, as she ran back to the house for something she had forgotten. Just beyond the gates there was a little bridge which led across the river, and nurse never left the two children alone near the water. Jack was full of mischief, but he was always truthful and obedient, and as nurse said they were not to go beyond the gates, of course the two little people did not do so. But she had not said: "Don't climb the wall!" and so a sturdy little boot was soon seeking a foothold in the stonework. "Me come tool" said Nancy.

Jack stretched out a helping hand to his little sister, and the two were soon shouting: "I'm the king of the castle I" from the top of the wall. Then suddenly Nancy, with a cry, tumbled backwards, and rolling headlong down a steep bank, fell, with a splash, into the river. The boy never stopped to think, but was after her in aD instant. Luckily the river was quite shallow; but Jack did not know this, and had it been ever so deep he would have plunged in just the same. And he saved Nancy's life, for the little girl fell on her face in the water, and having . hurt her shoulder she could not pick herself up.

Jack was not punished, or even scolded, for having led Nancy into mischief; for, after all, he was a little hero, wasn't he? •

A GREAT SECRET. Lisa was very cross because she had been shut out of the little room next the nursery, called the "rubbishroom," where she used to play houses with her brother Jim, and no one would tell her the reason why. Besides this, her aunties' used to come and see her mother every day to talk secrets, and even her father would turn her out of the outhouse where he did his carpentering and tell her to run away and play. Lisa tried not to feel unhappy, but it was very hard for a little girl to bear—and even Jim, who was younger than herself, only six—seemed to know all about it. At last her birthday came, and Lisa thought that today, at any rate, she would not worry any more, but enjoy herself instead with a big doll she just fancied that her mother meant to give her. But, oh dear, there were no presents for her at all, and poor Lisa felt very much like crying. Then, when breakfast was aver, her mother took one of her hands, and her father the other, and they ran Lisa upstairs and opened the door of the rubbish room. She could hardly believe her eyes. The dull old room had been turned into a dear little bedroom with rose-patterned walls and pretty white furniture, and on the cushioned window seat lay the very big doll she had wanted so much.

"This is your own room, dear," said mother, "and are you still cross because we kept it a secret from jrou " You may imagine what Lisa's answer was!