THE TALE OF JOHNNIE TWEEDIE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12548, 11 July 1905, Page 8

THE TALE OF JOHNNIE TWEEDIE.

A SHORT STORY FOR CHILDREN

Little Johnny Tweedie had been a very bad boy. He "had offered to help his mother to pull up weeds in the garden, but instead of weeds he had pulled up flowen-s, though he knew the difference perfectly well. For who would not know the difference between beautiful' geraniums, which stand up straight, with red, round clumps of blossom, and chickweed, which crawls along the ground and has no blossom to speak of? But Johnnie only laughed very .rudely when his mother came, and he did not seem sonry at all. So she tbok him JTto the house, and shut him into a little room by himself to think about what he had done, and she said that she would let him out as scon as he told her that he was sorry. Johnnie sat down quietly in a big armchair, and pretended to himself that he was quite happy.' Hi 3 mother had said, "When you are good, ring the bell, and I will oome." But Johnnie sat on and on, and he would not ring the bell, and it began to grow dark. Now, Johnnie did not like the dark, so foe softly tried the door, and he found that 'his mother had not locked it. He laughed a little, and opened it, and crept out silently into the garden, where it was still pretty light. And he came to the bed of geraniums that he had pulled up. and, to his surprise, there they weire, all planted again, though they were looking rather sad and drooping. As Johnnie stood gazing at them, he was -more surprised still to see one, the last of them, .slowly being lifted up from the ground and put back into its hole. Johnnie Tweedie dropped down on his hands and knees to see this curious thing closer, and, behold! a troop of little men in green had fastened a rope of grass' to the branches of the geranium, and they were hauling, hauling, -with all their might, and very hot and tired they looked. At last it was done. The geranium was in its place, and they tramped down the earth close round its roots. At that moment one caught sight of Johnnie Tweedie, and he cried: "'Aha, here he is! Our enemy has fallen into our hands! Come with us, young sir, and submit to punishment for your crime!" He wa-red his hand, and said, "Men, do your duty!'" Instantly a long file of little green men ran up Johnnies back as he crouched over the geranium bed. Each little sjreer. man carried a little green jug, and how they got the jugs Johnnie could not tell, but one by one they ran up to Johnnies head and emptied their jugs over his hair, and ran down again. And Johnnie felt himself growing smaller and smaller and siraller., so that when tho last man emptied the last jug over him, "Johnnie was just his size, and that was about th« size his own forefinger had been. Then these little green men took John. ■hie Tweedie prisoner, and tied his hands behind his back with grass, and led him ■ off under the geranium leaves, which waved and rustled over his head like, the trees of a great forest. And they lod him to the roots of a tree near by, where Johnnie had often noticed a hole that looked like a rabbit-hole, and down this hole they marched, and Johnnkwith them. At first it was very dark in the hoe, but by-atid-by lights began to twinkle round them, and they got brighter and • brighter until, at length, Johnnie and ( his guard reached a large hall, which was j ablaze With brilliant coloured lights. The hall wao full of people, men and women, | all dressed in gay colours, the colours of, the flowers. The troop of little green j men stopped at the door, but the guards j who held Johnnie captive, with the \ leader walking in front, marched up the ' centre of tho great hall. ! "This is a human boy, your majesty, whom we have reduced to a reasonable! suz-2. He wilfully tore up and tbr*w ] away to perish a great many of your majesty's most beloved and sacred flowers —the noble red geraniums!" ' Here there was a movement of horror t through the hall. "My men and I have bcon hard at work since we heard of this terrible deed, and we think that we have ' saved most, if not all, of these precious lives." j Then he heard a kind voice say, "That is well," and he had the courage to look up. And he saw the King of the Flowers sitting on his throne, and his robes seemed to be made of rove petals, j "The criminal was also rude to his mother," went on Johnnies accuser. I "Ah," said the King gently, "so these powerful human beings have also trouble with their'children." j Then Johnnie became aware of the approach of a figure in the most brilliant jof red robes, the colour of a field poppy,: | and he knew that he was a Prince, for all the men arid women in the hall boweil as he passed, and cried, "Hail, Prince of the Weeds!" ) The Prince stopped and asked what crime the prisoner had committed. And when they told'him, he said, laughing: "Well, let him go, far he spared the chick'woe-d, my own special subjects, although he-tried to. kill the red geraniums." ' "Your subjects had no right to be there, my son," said the King sternly.) "When you sit in my place you will be King of the Flowers, and then you must forget all these -wild oats and other weeds you ace so fond of." ( "Ah, well, your majesty, grant me a