TEDDY BUT WHY.’

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue VI, 10 February 1894, Page 143

TEDDY BUT WHY.’

‘ Mamma, may I take Tessie Gray an apple ? A big one, mamma, oh. please ! We played philopena, and she caught me.’ Expecting the yes he thought sure to follow, Teddy laid his hand on the latch of the cellar door. ‘ Not this morning, dear,’ said mamma, tying on sister Dell’s hood. ‘ But why !' asked Teddy, crossly. ‘ Oh, fie !’ said grandmamma, ‘ Who let litt'e But Why into this room !’ and she smiled merrily at Teddy. ‘ If I don’t take her that philopena, all the boys will say I’m a mean fellow !’ cried Teddy. ‘ And so you shall take her a big apple this noon, dear, but the bin is too high in front for you to reach, and mamma has no time now to go down cellar.’ ‘ But why can’t I reach ?’ insisted Teddy. ‘ It’s plain to see that little But Why has our Teddy by the ear this morning,’ sighed grandmamma, with a comical little twinkle in her eyes. Teddy slipped down cellar. He climbed up the front of the apple-bin by means of a peach-basket upturned on a bushel measure, and looked over at the apples. Ob, such -quantities of juicy, speckled pippins, in spite of the fact that they were getting rather low ; and a long wintry sunbeam falling aslant them lit up a particular bsanty. ' Reach for that,’ whispered naughty But Why. Teddy rea hed down, and stretched five eager fingers toward the golden apple. Then there was a somersault. Teddy’s little red legs whirled through the air, and he sat up, rueful and dismayed, in the middle of the apple-bin.

There was no climbing out of it Four vertical walls frowned on him. So there Teddy sat, thinking hard and fast as he winked the stars out of bis poor little eyes. • Now, darling,’ said mamma, suddenly appearing on the scene, * here are your slate and speller. I think since you are late for school you can do your sums down here. It is not cold, and I could not think of pulling you out. You must wait till Uncle John comes.’ • Yes, mamma,’ said Teddy, meekly, and creeping over into the light of the dusty sunbeam he went to work. • Will you please hand me up a dozen apples ?’ asked grandmamma, a while after. ‘We did not expect to have any until Uncle John came.’ Teddy handed them up in shamefaced silence. ‘Dumplings for dinner,' remarked grandmamma, with a relenting sound in her voice. Never was there a more welcome sound than the clatter of Uncle John’s boots. ‘ Hollo, Apple Dumpling !’ he cried, lifting Teddy with a great sweep to the cellar floor. • Grandmamma says you’ve been spending the morning down here with little But Why.’ • Yes,’ said Teddy, ‘ but he’s gone.’ • It’s a lovely apple !’ cried Tessie, as Teddy paid his philopena that same afternoon. • But why were you absent this morning ?’ • That’s just the reason,’ laughed Teddy, with a very red face. ‘lt "was But Why.’ And sister Dell did not tell Tessie who But Why was.

Lillian L. Price.