TALES BEFORE BEDTIME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19840, 14 May 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

TALES BEFORE BEDTIME

TAFFY’S BIRTHDAY They all knew it was Taffy’s birthday. The three children loved their little dog very much, and they all decided that Taffy must have a present. The evening before they .went to consult Mother. “Of course he must have a present,” she said. “Now, what shall it be? Suppose everybody goes off quite alone for five minutes to think. When you have made up your minds come back to me here.” So the three children, Clytie, Max, and Dot, ran up different paths in the garden to think quietly. The first thing that Clytie noticed was that the remains of Taffy’s dinner were lying on a broken china plate outside the kitchen door. She knew now what she thought Taffy ought to have. Max ran up another way,' and met Taffy himself. The little dog’s collar looked as if it were getting small. Max knew then what Taffy wanted. Lastly, Dot ran along a different way, and there on the path lay the very present! Dot knew at once what she meant to give him. She ran off to the kitchen and had a long conversation with cook, and when she came out again she was carrying something wrapped’up in her overall, which she hid in the tool-shed. '’Taffy wants a nice enamel plate to have his food on, Mother,” cried Clytie, when they all met again round Mother’s knee; “to be kept quite separate from all the other plates. But I’ve only got sixpence!” ••Splendid! You can get one for that.” •‘He wants a new collar, but I’ve only got twopence,” said Max sadly. “Splendid!” said Mother again. ”I’ll help you out with fhe money. Now, Dot! ’ ’ Then little Dot unscrewed her tightly rolled green overall, and showed a most splendid mutton-bone. “Will this do?” she asked. “Cook gave it to me. I have got no pennies but here’s the present. Cook said it ought to last him a week!” How they all laughed! And Taffy, who liked all his presents seemed to enjoy Dot’s best of all. An Unfailing Sign. “I’ve tried my best to find out whether the new boarder is married,” said the maiden lady. “Oh, I knew at once that he was,” replied the widow. “He listened to everyone who started to talk without once interrupting.”