TONY REPENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

TONY REPENTS.

(By B. E. SPOONER.)

The sun was delightfully warm, and Tony's mother had sent him in the orchard to play. Tony was a dear littlo. boy of seven, with bright blue eyes and fair, curly hair. He was climbing an old apple tree at the bottom of the garden when he heard hie mother's voice callin« out, "Tony! Tony! Where are you!"" Hastily scrambling down through the branches, he ran up the shelly path, shouting as he went, "All right, mummy, I'm coming," and reached hia mother's side quite out of breath, "Tony," she said, "I want you to go to tho butcher's and get a pound of sausages for tea." Tony sped away on his errand with a shiny sixpence held tightly in his little clenched hand. He was hot and tired when he reached the shop, but went in and bought the sausages, receiving two pennies in change. On the way home he could hear the money jingling in his trouser pocket. All of a sudden a very wicked thought came to him. His mother had given him sixpence. Now if he kept the change . . . anywav mummy wouldn't know. Tony delivered the message to his mother with a very flushed expression on his face. That night, after dinuer, he carefully placed the pennies under his pillow, and a little later prepared for Blanket Town. Tony's curly head had not been nestled on his pillow any length of time before he fell fast asleep. He had not been in Slumber Town very long when he saw a grotesque shape loom up at his bedside. Tony grew stiff and rigid between the sheets. °The shape slowly diminished in size, and there, right by his side, stood the most horrible, wizened little old man he had ever seen. Long, matted hair covered the upper part of the gaunt and eruel face, from whiai two eyes gleamed a yellowish green; the thin lips, beneath his crooked nose, were drawn back in a hendish grin, revealing decaying and rotten teeth. A grey, filthy garment fell in flowing folds from his bony shoulders, and his ankles were bound with iron shackles, joined together by a long, rustv chain. Above the old niaVe head, in a. phosphorescent arc of light, glowed the words: "Thou shalt not steal." Tony stared at the lettering with fear in his heart, his brow became moist, and his blue eyes dilated with terror, as he watched two scrawny hands like talons groping their way towards him. He screamed with /right, and was sitting up in bed, when his mother came hurrying into his room wanting to know whv he sang out. ■ sice 1 T a * ° Dly dreamin S'" ie replied, His mother tucked him in again with a laugh, telling him to go to sleep. In the morning a shamefaced little boy told his mother everything. a "Kfl ?, eTer do lt a S«""»" he vowed truthfully. "Tony," said his mother, "you have learnt your lesson, and remember that a happy mind is worth a million times more than a guilty conscience." Then she gave him a great big hug, telling him to go and have a look on his pillow after he had breakfasted. A very puzzled Tony ate a scanty meal, and, excusing himself from the table, fairly flew to his room, to find a golden sovereign lying on his pillow-sham. Beside it was a note, and written upon it were three words •' 'Honesty is rewarded." PERFECTLY CLEAR. Confused Christmas Shopper: I want a pair of spec-rimmed hornicles—l mean sporn-rimmed hectacles—dash it! I mean heck-rimmed spernacles— Shopwalker: I know what you mean, sir. Mr. Brown, show the gentleman a pair of rim-spermed hectacles.—B.K.S. *~* »^iiMiiMiiw.n^fl^ l |, wl ■■■unwiiiaaM^.—■