PETER THE WHALER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 33, 26 May 1947, Page 6

PETER THE WHALER

What ho, what ho, ma hearties. Well here we are once again. How are you all enjoying the school holidays? I suppose some of you have just 'returned from other towns all ready to start off on a new term. I suppose most of you like school. I know I used to when I was a boy, •but my the schools have changed since then. It won’t be very nice going to school these cold moi’nings though will it? I’m very glad the pets don’t go to school. I can just imagine them getting up and leaving their nice warm fire to cross over to Whakatane. Butinsky tore his new coat the other day and I had to get my sail making needle out and mend it. He wants it dyed purple now as he has got tired of the original colour. He is very hard to please I’m afraid. I have a competition for you again this week and some stories too so I hope you enjoy them. Cheerio till next week. P.T.W.

COMPETITION • Aileen Fitzgerald has sent in an idea for a competition. Aileen suggests that you write an autobiography of some animal pretending that you are the animal. The story should be about 250 words in length. Well lads and lasses I think Aileen has a good idea there so get busy everyone and send in your story so it will arrive at the Beacon Office on or before Thursday. A free picture ticket goes to the writer of the best story. BLINKIE Blinkie really was a very great cat. When the cook left the milk jug on the kitchen table he was delighted and put his head in at once and began to lap up the milk. Sometimes heads don’t come out easily as they go in poor Blinkie thought he would have to go about wearing the milk jug for the rest of his life.

After all his struggling he got it off, but you should have seen what cook did when she came back. Poor Blinkie went out' and never tpok milk from the jug any more. —Aileen Fitzgerald. * RIDDLES When a Negro man dies what do relatives do? —Go a black berrying (burying). Why is a candle wick like Athens? —Because it is in the middle of Greece. (Grease).

When is. a baby like a cup and saucer?—When it’s a teething (teathing). r What veg is dangerous to find on ship?—A leek (leak). —Aileen Fitzgerald.

OUR STORY TREASURE HUNT “I like treasure hunts!” shouted Harry, dashing into the house one day after school. “What’s a treasure hunt?” asked his little brother, Billy. “Oh, you’re to little to know,” said Harry. “But if I must tell you, it’s when you have a map and find out where a treasure is buried and go and dig it up.” “Who buries the* treasure?” asked Billy. “Oh, pirates, maybe. Nobody is supposed to know who buries it. The thing to do is to find it and dig it lip.”

“Are you going on a treasure hunt?” asked Billy. “I’m on one now,” answered Harry, “and the rest of the boys are waiting for me.” “Let me go, too!” begged Billy. “I should say not!” replied Harry. “A little fellow like you—what could you do on a treasure hunt?” Tears filled Billy’s eyes as Harry ran off with the boys, leaving him behind on the doorstep. A few minutes later Ben Bradley came running up shouting, “Where’s Harry?” “He’s gone on a treasure hunt,” said Billy. “Are you going, too?” “Sure,” answered Ben, “and so are Sally and Ruth.”

“Can girls go on treasure hunts?” gasped Billy. “Some girls can,” said Ben. “Well,” muttered Billy, “if girls can go, can’t I? Harry said I’m too iittle, but Ruth isn’t any bigger.’ “No,” said Ben, “but she’s older.” And with that he rati down the street, Sally and Ruth following later.

When they e&ught up with Harry, Ben said, “Billy feels pretty badly because you won’t let him come along.” “Oh, he’s so little—he’d spoil the fun,” said Harry. “Why not let him come?” pleaded Sally. “We can fix it so that Billy can have something he can do.” “How?” grumbled Harry.

“Easy as anything,” Sally assured him. “We’ll mark the map with red crayon so that Billy can understand it, and then we’ll let him find the treasure instead of us.” So Sally and Ruth went back for Billy. When they all came to the woods,Harry and Ben and some of the other boys went on a way and hid the treasure. Then they came out to the edge where Sally and Ruth and Billy were waiting for them and marked the map, telling Billy what it all meant. “Now Billy is to have the first chance to find the treasure,” said Ben. And off he started among the trees while Sally and Ruth kept watch. “Look!” Billy squealed at last, “there’s a pile of leaves and a rock on it. Maybe that’s the treasure.” And, sure enough, when Billy began to pull the leaves away and dig around the stone with his chubby hands, he found it! And it was a big bag of marbles. “Oh, look!” he cried as he came out of the woods with the treasure, “I found it! And now let’s all divide it, so that we’ll all have a part!” “That’s fine!” smiled Sally. And Harry admitted, after the fun was all over and the treasure hunters were ■ homeward bound again, that it was fun, after all, to have the little fellow along. BLACK ICE CREAM A hot and irritable crowd of people, who were waiting outside Cape Town court room on legal business, were suddenly gladdened by the Court Orderly shouting, “Ice cream! Ice cream!” What a charming innovation on a hot day, thought the weary, melting throng, ice cream provided at the law court! But alas! “Ice cream” was merely the name of a dusky native lad who was required as a witness in a case. JOKE CORNER The teacher was trying to make the pupils think, so' asked some tricky questions. “Johnny,” said the teacher, “give me an example of ‘nothing’.” Johnny did not hesitate. “Nothing,” he said, “is a balloon with its skin off!” Lady: “What have you got today in the shape of celery?” Greengrocer: “Well, we’ve got some rhubarb; that’s the nearest.” The teacher asked the class to give a sentence containing the word officious. There was silence for a time, then up went the hand of a bright boy. “Yes, Tommy?” queried the teacher. “Jack and Jill fell in the river and cried ‘Oh, fish us out’!” “I SAY, SIR” A gentleman who was in the habit of* interlarding his discourse with the expression “I say,” having been informed by a friend that a certain individual had made some ill-natur-ed remarks upon this pecularity, took the opportunity of addressing him in the following amusing style of rebuke: I say, sir, I hear say you say I say “I say” at every word I say. Now sir, although I know I say, “I say” at every word I say, still I say, sir, it is not for you to say I say “I say” at every word I say. OH, WHAT A FUNNY PUP! I have a little doggy, And when I throw my ball He run so fast to get.it Sometimes I think he’ll fall. He barks and growls quite fiercely When the ball goes up, But when it’s down, he bites it; Oh, what a funny pup.