TINY TOTS’ STORY

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17804, 31 August 1929, Page 16 (Supplement)

TINY TOTS’ STORY

THE MAGIC BOTTLES., “David, will you take these carrots to Mrs Haines?” asked his mother as she came into the room where the children were playing. “Certainly, mother,” replied the little boy readily, getting up from the table. “I won’t be long,” he told his younger brother and sister, as, taking

tiie basket, he set out across the fields. He had walked barely a hundred yards when a little man dressed in brown, followed by a donkey, came to meet him from the opposite direction.

“Good morning,' David!” said the little man.

“G-g-good-morning!” stammered David in surprise; for (his was the strangest sight he had ever seen. “Hee-haw! Carrots!” brayed the donkey excitedly. “What about it, Master? It’s a long time since 1 had anything to eal!"

“Why, you’ve just had breakfast,” exclaimed the brownie. "Don’t be greedy. ’ “But I’m hungry,” replied the donkey.

"All right," grumbled his master. “Will you sell me your carrots, David?”

“What will you give me for them?” demanded David.

"This,” replied the little man, taking out a small dusty bottle from under his coat.

David laughed. “What—that?” he cried scornfully. “Yes; it is the most valuable bottle in the whole world,” said the brownie. “Take the bottle and be rich for life; leave it and be poor!” “Then I will take it!” cried David suddenly, handing him the carrots. “When you get home,” went on the brownie, “spread the table with a clean cloth, on it lay the bottle, and wave your bands over it five times, saying—- “ Bottle, do your duty.”

“And then?” asked David excitedly. But he was alone In the Held. The brownie arid Ills donkey had vanished. When he got home his parents were very angry with him. “What a stupid thing to do —a dusty old bottle in return for my good carrots!” scolded bis for money was scarce in that household. But he went on with his story until he coaxed her to lay the table with a clean cloth.

Then, putting the bottle in the middle of the table, he waved his hands over it rive times, saying, “Bottle, do your duty!" In less than a minute two fairies sprang out of the bottle and began laying the table with all sorts of good things to cat. This finished, they returned to the bottle as quickly as they had come.

“What a fine feastl” cried David delightedly. “Look, Mother; it was true after all I"

But mother was looking at the beautiful dishes. They were solid gold.

> And so did their money troubles vanish, and a happier family would have been hard to find.

So time passed, until their landlord, a rich but miserly man, hearing of their sudden wealth, determined to find out the cause of it. He called at the house one morning after breakfast, and cunningly learned the whole story of the wonderful bottle.

“If you give me that bottle,” he said coaxingly, “I’ll make you a present of Beech Tree Farm!” Now this had always been their great desire, so, sure they could never lose their riches, they foolishly parted with their treasure and went to live at the farm. From that day onwards their fortune changed. The crops failed, the cattle died,, and one night a haystack caught fire and the farm was burned to the ground. A month later a very sad David met the brownie again, and on hearing of his bad luck the little man cried, “Well, here is another bottle. Now take it to your landlord and offer it in exchange for the one I gave you first.” So once again he gave him a bottle, and vanished as before. The bottle was the most beautiful one imaginable, made out of rainbow-coloured glass. “I’m sure it’s better than the other one,” David thought to himself as he hurried to the landlord's bouse. “Still, I bad better obey the brownie.” “Ob, what a magnificent bottler cried the landlord.

“Very well," agreed David, “I’ll give it to you in exchange for the one I gave you first 1” “Done!” exclaimed the miser, delighted at his easy victory. “I’ll try it this very minute,” he continued, laying the table with a clean cloth and placing his prize in the centre. “Bottle, do your duty!” And' he waved his hands over the top of it. Immediately a whole troop of fairies sprang out of it and began carrying away the chairs, tables, and ornaments as fast as they possibly could, not stopping until the house was stripped of everything. But with the bottle luck returned to David’s borne, and from that day to this they have lived in perfect happiness.