JUNGLE JINKS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue XXIII, 9 June 1900, Page 1103

JUNGLE JINKS.

HOW YOUNG RHINO LOST HIS DINNER.

use, and mainly only good for kids. I am going in for brown Leghorn fowls as these are good layers, and 1 mean to do well next season out of the eggs. 1 buy all the food myself except the house scraps, which Mother gives me, only 1 have to wash the porridge pot in return, but I don’t mind this, as there is always a good bit of porridge over, and it is good tucker for the fowls, and saves the corn. We have no servant, and 1 light the tire in the morning, so get the chance of any odd bread about the place for the hens. They don’t really mind my taking it, but Mater pretends to get in a bit of a scott now and again. I am only getting about 2 eggs a day now and sometimes not that. I had a big go in. cleaning out my fowl house the other day, for I heard the inspectors were coming round the suburbs as well as the city, i mean to do it once a week now. Any time your cousins want to know about fowls you can write to me. as Father has a big book on them, and I can shove his answers down on paper and send it you. 1 don’t think I would care about a badge, so don’t send one, but if the cot is hard up I will get one of my sisters to collect a bit.—Yours truly Edmund Maloney, Newtown. [Dear Cousin Edmund., —Mjany thanks for your letter, and unless you are too grand a boy to be a cousin I shall l>e delighted to have you as one of our band. Yours was a very nice letter, and thanks to having a lot to do with boys in one way or another I was able to understand the slang. But really, my dear lad, if you boys go on increasing your slang so fast we shall have to get dictionaries to keep up with you. You are very good natured about the questions about fowls, and I dare say some cousins

will ask some. Perhaps T shall myself, for 1 too keep fowls, and curiously enough Leghorns, though many of mine are white. I understand your Mother getting you to clean the porridge pot; it is the only

one I mind at all. I’lease write again soon as I am sure all the cousins wi’.l want to hear from you.—Cousin Kate.J ® ® ® Dear. Cousin Kate, —It was very exciting to find my letter in the “Graphic,” but 1 was rather disappointed at such a short answer. Father thought some of it must have been missed out by mistake. It left off so queerly. Dear Cousin Kate. 1 have been some grand rides on my bike, and the other morning I went out at whatever time do you think?—before six!! It was this way: I had Aunt Alice from Auckland coming, and father wanted to meet her at the breakwater as early as possible, as she is always sick if the boat is alongside the breakwater or not. So we rode down before the train left, and sure enough, though it was barely light, there we found poor auntie feeling very miserable and sitting on some boxes. A steward had given her n rug off the boat, but she had been dreadfully ill. No one else was up on board. She is a splendid rider, and so we walked up to the hotel near the breakwater, and father hunted round and got her a cup of tea. After this she said she would much rather ride a bike home than wait for the train, which would make her sick again. So she took the one father had ridden down (it was mother’s) and I showed the wav and father waited for the train and brought up the luggage. We were home long before him. and mother and I had auntie's and his breakfast ready by the time he drove up. It was so funny all day. The hours seemed so early, if you understand: I mean we seemed at lunch time when it was only breakfast. This is a very long letter, is it not? When were you in New Plymouth. Cousin Kate? 1 hope you will like this letter. I am just thirteen.—Your affectionate cousin. Myrn. New Plymouth. [Dear Cousin Myra,- Your father guessed right about mv answer to your first letter. Some pnrt of it got lost and. as you say, made the ending very nbmnt. Your account of your ride down to the breakwater was very amusing and, T think, very well writ-

ten for a child of your age. What fine times you will all have now if your auntie has brought her bike, if she has one. 1 suppose you have quite got over the “running into things” stage now, have you riot? What sort of bicycle is yours? It is a few months since I was at New Plymouth, and it is so muggy and horrid in Auckland I should just love to go there on another visit for a month.