A HOPELESS CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 42, 18 February 1905, Page 10

A HOPELESS CASE.

Mrs M., having only one sob, was naturally desirous that he should grow up "every inch a man." Consequently, she \ras more delighted when Tefidy began to show signsof decided preference for those toys manufactured to please only the youthful voters of the land, and games in which only boys are expected to indulge. . - ■ But as the days and months went, by Teddy's preference narrowed down to a single, game — from morning til), night he played "horse." The little friends that came to ccc his pet pigeons lie put into harness. His mother wearied of. Jelling, him about the steeds of the Arabian deserts aDd the wild horses of plains. His scrap-booUa overflowed with the clipped pictures of horses and ponies, and his Noah's Ark began to resemble the miniature corral of a Western bronco-breaker. Teddy's mother began to despair. To Mrs 8., her neighbour, she confided her fears that her boy might go Insane on horses. "Why not try the same plan that has converted many an old crank en horseflesh?" suggested Mre B. "Get him an ftulomobile." The next day there arrived at Teddy's homo the most beautiful, complete, and interesting little automobile that money could buy. It had a motive power supplied by a storage battery of electricity. It had red leather cushion seats, pneumatic tyres and brass finishings. It was a toy calculated to make glad the heart, of a billionaire's son. "Well, I suppose Teddy's cured of his horse--play?" said Mrs B. the next day. "Cured?" gasped Teddy's mother in despair. "What do you think? The first day It arrived he played that he was a circiis horse, that the automobile was one of the euudy waggons of the parade, and that he was the horse that had been trained to ride In It. Then he miide believe the automobile was a fire-engine and he the team of horses that haul it to the fires; and laat evening I oaino into his play-room, only to find him a-straddle of a broomstick, and shrine fearfully at the 'Little Red Devil." "