FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 336, 31 July 1914, Page 6

FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

THE LITTLE MAID FOR ME.; 1

I know a little maiden, Whom I always see arrayed In • . Silks and ribbons, but she is a spoilt

and petted elf; For she never helps her mother, or her sister, or her brother, _ I But, forgetting all around her, lives

entirely for herself. ' So she simpers and she sighs, rt Aiid she mbpes and she cries, And knows not where the happy i hours flee. NoW let me tell you privately, my darling little friend, She’s as miserable as miserable can be, And I fear she’s not the little maid for me.

but I know another maiden, Whom I’ve often seen arrayed in • Silks and ribbons, but not always,' she's a prudent little elf; And she always helps her mother, and her sister and her brother, And lives for all around her quite regardless of herself. §o she laughs and she sings, And the hours on happy wings Showeir gladness round her pathway as they flee. Now need I tell you privately, my darling little friends, She’s as happy as a little maid can be? This is surely just the little maid for me.

AUNT MARGARET AND THE TELEPHONE.

Just as mamma was putting little Dorothy to bed the other evening papa came in to tell her that someone wished to talk with her on the telephone. So mamma left the room, and after a while came back and told Dorothy 1 that she had been talking with little Margaret Ayers’ mother. Now, Margaret was Dorothy’s very best friend and playmate, and lier mamma was going to give her a birthday party on Saturday afternoon. More than that, she had asked mamma on the ’phone if Dorothy could come to It. Mamma said that she could, for Dorothy had been a good little girl for ever so long, and besides, there was no school on Saturday, of course.

“Oh, oh, oh!” cried little Dorothy, clapping her hands and jumping up and down in bed until it bounced her around as though it were a hammock that someone was shaking and jiggling. "And, mamma,” she cried "can I, please, tell Margaret to-mor-row that I’ll ceme to her party? Can I tell her on the telephone?” Mamma assented and smiled. “That reminds me, Dorothy,” she said, "of a little girl named Margaret, who once talked over the telephone in a most amazing fashion. Shall I. tell you about her as your sleepy-time story?”

But it was quite unnecessary for mamma to wait for a reply, for Dorothy had already tucked the covers in around her and propped her tiny little chin in her hands, ready to listen. “Well,” began mamma, “this story is about your Aunt Margaret. She’s grown up now, but when she talked on the telephone for the first time she was almost as little as you are, Dorothy. I was much older, and, in fact, I myself held lner up to the ’phone so she could talk fto father —your grandfather, you know —who had been called on business fto a city near by. “It was. the very first, time Aunt Margaret had. 1 ever talked over the ’phone, remember; and she was just as delighted Us you were when you did. Remember how strange it sounded to you to ; hear Uncle Will’s voice talking out of that queer, funny-look-ing little thing they call a receiver? Well, it seemed just that way to Aunt Margaret. “She was amhzed —and, I think, a little bit frightened, too. But she told papa how much she loved him and missed him, and how he must try to come home to us just as soon as ho could. She was just in the midst of sending him a sweet little good-night kiss over the wire when she dropped the receiver and bqgan .o weep. ‘“Oh, niß,irana, mamma!' she cried. “I asked what was the matter, but flhe wouldn’t tell me—she wanted mamma—yuuy grandmother, you know So grandma hurried to her, thinking She had been taken suddenly ill. “‘Mamj/na! Mamma!’ cried Aunt Margaret.; ‘Oh—oh—please, please make papa come out! ” '“Come out?’ exclaimed grandma;' and, in the same hßeiath ‘Come out of what?’

“'Otft—out of thait —that thing!’ wailed Aunt Margairet. ‘Oh, mamma, how can he ever get. out of that little hole ? ■ "Grandma sat (Tight down on the floor and laughed and laughed. And I thought it‘so fitnwy that I had to put your aunt down fcfr fear I would let her fall. "Think of itlf Aunt Margaret thought grandpa htad crawled inside of the receiver and was talking to her from It! Now wasn’t that funny! You se/e, in those days the telephone was jv.st beginning to be used by people, 4nd lots and lVots of them didn’t know how it worked. Of course, you do —t—’” and mammja’. smiled at the little.: girl, “*Ob, yes, mamma,* said Dorothy, 'therre’s a little fairy Ohat run. along the wire arid tells th e other person whaat you say.’ filAnld then mamma’dau ighed again. /"Goodness gracious, Dorothy!” she exclaimed, “who evjer itold you that? No, indeed, there fe nto fairy unless you want to call him electricity—but it’s way past your biedti tne now. So pi have to tell youj abcAut that some |>ih'er\tlme./