A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1932, Page 16

A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS

(Original.) ■ IT would not have happened if Son had gone alone—so he said himself. If you had asked him why, he would have replied boastfully: "Oh, I don't do silly things-like that. I'm not such a duffer." But I am not so sure. It might have been Son just as well. It was like this:— One day the twins, Boy and Son, had to go for their Mother to take some books to a lady who lived in a house on the river-bank a, mile away. ' Part of_ the way the road wont along by the river. Instead of keeping on it, the twins got through the fence and walked along the sloping bank. Boy was carrying the books; Son always made him do all the work.; On a particularly steep part his foot suddenly slipped and, to stop himself from falling, he flung out one hand. He did not fall, but one of the books did. It went sliding down the bank and splashed into the water. But luckily it was not deep there, and the twins soon fished, the book out agSin. Boy was on the point of saving something, but what it was he was going to say I don't know. Neither does Son, for he got only as far as "I—" when his foot slipped for the second time, and this time it was not only one book that, splashed into the river. It was Boy himself with the two other books.

Boy gasped "_O-00-000l Cold!" but he wasn't frightened. He was quite used to bathing in the river, though, of course, not when wearine his clothes. ■ . Son laughed. "You are in a mess," he said. "And—gee! look at the book! It will be no use taking them to Mrs. Gray now. We'd better co back home.". ■■■; -. "■ . * And so home they went. Bnt they did not go very quickly They dawdled and hoped that, by the time they did reach home Boy's clothes would be dry, so that his mother would not know about his ducking. The clothes were soon dry, for the sun was bright, but even then the twins did not hurry. They lingered by the river watching a man wlio was poling a raft across towards them from the opposite bank. "Give us a ride, Mister?» asked Son as he came near. The man looked at mm. . "Well," he_ said,"l've got to go over again, but I'm not coming back. You can come back over the bridge." "All right," said Son, and stepped on board. fl,v *K«M?ji 'vl^/ 8?? 4;^, 8* n°thing would go right with him that ny" I i ■•"■■•.foqt.to follow Son, but instead of coming to rest finaly and firm yon the .raft, it went down, down into the tater. His other foot followed, and floundered in water up to his waist, for at that place the river dipped down suddenly from the bank. "Whatever is the matter with you to-day?" asked Son. "Where'do y°,u Jive?" the man askeS as he helped Boy out. "Is- it "No. Just down that street." .-.. "Well, you'd-better go home quickly and get some dry things on." __~ So this time,, they did go home, but Son was disappointed at losing the ride, and grumbled. After all, their Mother did know about Boy's duet Wkt.tehe^inot even get a cold, and-she said it did not matter that the books were spoilt, as they were old ones. would^^n^a^* had hel*e<i to -«7 the books, probably nothing Trentham. i .. , 6l^D^ C. AVEEY