CHILDREN'S COMER.

Evening Star, Issue 14933, 20 July 1912, Page 11

CHILDREN'S COMER.

COME HITHER, [By Someone.] On a dirty doorstep, in a dirty street, sat a little "boy, very well matched with his surroundings He was a curiy-headed, blue-eyed little chap, but small for his eight years. The street was littered with cabbage stalks, empty peach jam tins, and other refuse. In a house opposite a broken-down gramophone was wailing out, in mournful tones, from a worn-out record, the opening bars of the popular old song \ 'Found a "Peanut.' By the boy an old tabby cat sat basking in the warmth of an October sun, and leaning against tho wall was a little dog, apparently fast asleep. But the boy was not laughing and talking to his animal friends as he generally was. His little head was in his hands;'he was eobbing and moaning bitterly, and rocking himself to and fro. Presently footsteps awoke the echoes of the sleepy street—those of an old man, who was walking in the centre of the road, laboriously picking his way amongst the debris, lie was dressed in a black suit with a long coat, and wore a black slouch hat. One of his hands was behind his coat-tails, while the other held a small volume, to which from timo to tune he : glanced and then mumbled to himself, | aa if he were repeating that which he had i just Tead. He had a hard, stern face, and ; a voice to match. Such was Professor Banks. Ho stopped when he came opposite the lilLtle boy, looked at him a moment, and then, in a shrill, high-pitched voice, said : " Come hither, little one." The boy, when he heard himself ad- ) dressed, raised his head, looked at the | professor, then rose and went up to the i old man. t \ "Well, boy, what are you crying for?" I asked he. " Because m-m-m-my dog " Hero a gush of tears prevented further j utterance. When they were subdued he; blurted out: "My—my dog is dead." If the boy expected "to see any "signs of emotion on the professor's face he was disappointed, because the learned man just said : " Why, that is nothing to cry over." Seeing the body of the deg against the wall, he went "over to it and looked scrutinisingly at it. "What did it die of?" he asked the little mourner. "Meisles," he answered. "That's what the 'Mother' told me." " Nonsense!" ejaculated the old man. " It's ptomaine poisoning from— r rom— —" Looking around for the cause of the poison the empty jam this caughth's eye. "Why, there is the very thing that did it. He has been licking the peach jam out of them, and of course died. But do not cry, hoy. Yon car. get another do-}." '"No, sir; not another like Despair. Mr Letchot, the man who drive* the coster cart, gave him. to me ; and now Faith is the only one I have got to love." "Who is Faith, and what is your name?" asked the professor. "Faith is that dear old pussy sitting in the sun there." Hearing his name taken in vain, the sleepy cat opened his eyes, blinked, and .ooked at '.he professor. Satisfied that he was not harmful, he closed his eyes and went to sleep again. "My naT.e is Hope," said the little chap. r "But have you no other name.' asked the other. "No, sir," said Hope. "I have no father or mother. I live with 'Mother Maud.' She is drunk just now. When she conies home she will beat mo for not lighting the fire, so I will go inside." A soft look came into the old man's eyes. He had no children of his own—ho had never married; for was he not wedded to his books? But the eight "f this little orphan softened his hard old heart. Hope entered the dingy dwelling. The professor shut his book and shuffled on, murmuring: "That's right, all S is P." When next Professor Banks saw little Hope he found him sitting on the same doorstep playing with old Faith. He had especially walked down that street on the chance of catching a glimpse of the little orphan, and had in one nand a small parcel and in his other his bclo od book. He stopped "by the steps; and his voice had a kinder tone in it as he sad : " Come hither, Jittl-3 had." He gave Hope the package, which, when opened, proved to be a large piece of cake. The boy's bright eyes fairly danced with delight, and his face broke out into wreaths of smiles as he cried : "Oh, thank you. sir." Just then the. old instrument of torture also broke out into the old, familiar song, 'Found a Peanut.* Hope, breaking off a piece of the cake — as the professor wished ho cou'd the gramophone—gave it to Faith. He did not know if cats liked cake, because ho ■ ?nd Faith had never tasted it, before, but j he soon found out. Then the old man j asked Hope if he would like to come and j live with him. He told him he would j clothe, feed, and send him to school if I he consented. The boy replied ''Yes," if "The Mother" would allow him, and if he could bring Failh. I So Professor Banks interviewed "The | Mother," who turned out to be no slim damsel. She said she was going to turn the boy out, whether or no, so he had better take him if he wanted him. The old man took the little lad to his house, where his housekeeper, who was as aged as himself, gave him a wash and a bath. Then he hurried him to the tailor's and bought him a, suit of clothes, on the way back murmuring to himself: " Sure, all'S is P." In due course the two, boy and cat, were installed in tho professor's household. And after tea that night they who sat around a roaring fire were, as tho worthy housekeeper remarked, Faith, Hope, and, last but not least, Charity. Dunedin, July 15 A YOUTHFUL CYNIC. A small boy's composition en man ra.n a.s follows : —" Man is a animal, his eyes is to get sand in. his ears is to have the earache, in, his irorje is to have the enuftics in, his mouth to hatch teeth in, he is divider! to the middle- and walks on tho splitends '" An unprepared man went to address a Sunday school. Thinking to be funny ho asked this question : " What would you do before so many bright boys and girls, who expected a speech from you, if you had nothing to eay?" *" I'd keep quiet," replied a email boy. Parent : " Tommy, whatever makes ycu so late " 'Tommy: " Had some words with the master, and he kept me in after school." Parent: " Vou had words with your echoolmaster?" Tommy : " Yes. I couldn't spell 'em." A minister opened tho Sunday school claes with the well-known hymn ' Little Drops of Water, Little Grains of Sand.' In the middle of the first verse hp stopped the singing and complained strongly of tho half-hearted manner in which it was sung. They mado a fresh start. "Now, then," he shouted. "Little drops of water," and do put some spirit into it." Father : " Mildred, if you discbey again I will surely spank you." On father's relurn home that evening Mildred once more acknowledged that she had again die-obeyod. Father (firmly) : " You are going to be ppanked. You may chooso your own time. When shall it be?" Mildred (five years eld, thoughtfully) : " Yesterday." ' Woman's Hume Companion."