TALES BEFORE BEDTIME.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16712, 30 January 1926, Page 14 (Supplement)

TALES BEFORE BEDTIME.

THE CRACK. Ronald climbed up into the dimlylighted barn and peered around. "Surely I can find a good place in here," he said to himself, "where I can hide my present until to-morrow." Ronald and his brothers and sisters were staying at a small farm by the sea, and as he shared a tiny bedroom he did not feel that it was safe to hide anything indoors. 'He wanted his present, which was a little bracelet for his sister's birthday, to be a surprise to everyone, for he had bought it with his own money. He soon found a narrow crack in the erd wall and slipped the little packet in, pushing it well out of sight. The next day he was up early and ran to the barn.

The presents were to be put on the breakfast-table, and Ronald had the happy feeling that there would be one more than anyone expected. He reached the barn and found the ciack. Then he stood still and stared. What had happened to it? Yesterday it was only just large enough for him to slip in the bracelet, but to-day he could easily slip in his whole hand and arm. He felt for the little package and pulled it out; then he stool ; still, thinking. He was not very old, but he was a Cub; and later he hoped to be a Boy Scout. He had already learned to notice and think. If the crack were growing bigger, then something was happening to the barn. Perhaps it might fall, and there were all the poor cows down below. Like a flash he was off, and, finding the farmer, he brought him back.

And it was none too soon. The crack had widened so much through the stormy night that the barn was already unsafe. The roof was sagging, and soon it would have fallen in. The cows were taken out at once; and though Ronald's present \vas the last instead of the first, to be put on the table, it was only because he had been so busy helping the farmer.