JACKO AT THE PANTOMIME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

JACKO AT THE PANTOMIME

Aunt Matilda was always very good to Jacko. She soon forgot any tricks the young rascal played on her, and she loved giving him pleasant surprises. At least, she thought they were picv sant surprises; very often Jacko found them exactly the reverse. “Coo! I can’t use this!” he said one day in disgust. The old lady had sent him a toy scooter!

Of course Jacko thought himself much too old for toys; and when he heard Adolphus chuckling unpleasantly he felt he was being made the laughingstock of the family. But fortunately no more parcels airived for a long time. Aunt Matilda wrote to Mrs. Jacko instead, and asked if she could take Jacko to the pantomine. “It’s Puss in Boots,” she wrote; “I know the dear boy will enjoy it.’’ Jacko’s face was a study. “Puss in Boots!’’ he said, choking with rage at the very thought. “Aunt seems to think I’m a three-year-old!’’ Mrs. Jacko couldn’t help feeling rather sorry for Jacko, but still she said there was no getting out of it. “You can’t disappoint the old lady,” she told Jacko. “I expect she has gone to a lot of trouble and got expensive seats.

And so she had! When Jacko arrived at the theatre, trying hard to look pleasant, he found that Aunt Matilda had taken the best box in the place. That certainly made things a bit better. Jacko had never been in a box, and was very excited to be so near the stage. “I wish I’d brought my pea; shooter!” he muttered. Aunt Matilda held her sides with laughter at the jokes in the pantomine; but Jacko had never been so bored in his life, and he couldn’t see that there was anything to laugh at. Even the lovely box of chocolates which Aunt Matilda had bought failed to cheer him up, until he suddenly had the bright idea of tying one of the chocolates to a piece of string and dangling it in front of a man playing in the orchestra just below. The man was simply furious, but ot course he couldn’t do anything as he had to keep on playing. And at last, in his excitement, Jacko leaned over so far that he nearly fell out of the box. Aunt Matilda had been much too interested in the pantomine to notice what was going on, but when she suddenly caught sight of Jacko’s position she almost had a fit.

“Help!” she shrieked, and caught hold of him by the legs. Inhere was a fearful struggle, but in the end Aunt Matilda managed to drag Jacko back into the box; in fact, pulled so hard that she sat down backwards on the floor with the last tug! “It’s the last time I take you out, you wretched boy!” she wailed. It was —much to Jaeko’s relief.