CHILDREN’S CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 41, 8 October 1892, Page 1013

CHILDREN’S CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN.

Dear Cousin Kate —I have a cat and her name is Spot Oppossum ; and a dog, and his name is LieutenantColonel Sir Kewi Maniopoto Cook.—Your loving cousin, VV.R. [How long does it take you to call your dog to come when you want him ! I should think both he and the cat find their long names veiy tiresome when they write letters.— Cousin Kate ] Dear Cousin Kate. — I have made out the picture puzzle in the last Graphic and I only hope my solution is correct. It is : ‘ When is an egg underdone like an egg overdone!’ Answer: ‘Before the shell is broken.’—Yours truly, G. Proude. Bombay. [You are the first to guess the riddle, and you have been very quick about it. Yes, you are quite right. I hope you will write again. — Cousin Kate.] Dear Cousin Kate, —I hope this will please some of your little readers. —Your loving cousin, Ivy. AN ANXIOUS DAY. A funny little incident happened in a friend’s house in Auckland, that I think the little folks of the Graphic would be amused at. The lady has four boys, and a short time ago, their hats being slightly soiled (even for boys), four new caps were bought, but not for ordinary wear all at once. Strange to say, the day after the caps came home the hats could not be found anywhere. Now, if one, or even two of them, were missing it would be nothing new, but for all four to have gone at once was too much. Of course, mother and auntie said it must be a planned thing, for obvious reasons, but the boys should not have the caps to wear if that was their idea, so old ones were looked up, and the boys despatched to school. Auntie said when they came home they must be made to confess (no one thinking for a moment they were ‘ Young George Washingtons’). There seemed no doubt of their guilt. The youngest arrived first. He was promptly ushered into a room, questioned and cross-questioned, but he only protested his innocence.- He was left in his room to reflect, and with various promises as to what he might expect. As the others came home they were each treated in the same manner. To give them a last chance they were allowed to go out and Zoofc for the caps, and they were to bring them home if only for their sakes, as they were told ‘ This thing is going to be sifted to the bottom.’ Soon after the boys were let loose, and four anxious young faces might be seen peering into most fearful ly-rnyiossidZe places for four straw hats. Mother meanwhile'went into the garden for some flowers, and under a tree were four hats which proved, on careful scrutiny, to be the lost treasures. A view holloa from four young throats, and a sudden remembrance of the evening before. A school had been held under the tree, where, of course, all heads had to be bare. The hats bad been carefully laid aside by the teacher (a girl a little older than her scholars) and forgotten. The next ten minutes was a high time for the boys. Mother and auntie said nothing, feeling very much out of conceit with things ; but the look on the boys’ faces was good to see. [Thank you very much, Ivy, for your nice little tale. I hope you will write again.—Cousin Kate.]