Children's Corner

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 44, 10 April 1930, Page 4

Children's Corner

PUNCH.

Every morning at a quarter to nine Punch waited at the front gate to see the boys off to school. Then, when they came down the garden path with their books and satchels, he ran with them to the end of the road, where he dismissed them with a few short barks. .This was his way of saying goodbye.

After that he always dashed home again as if a great weight had been taken off his mind.

After a peep into the schoolroom to see if the younger children had started their lessons, he seemed to consider the time was his own, and generally strolled out into the garden. He knew he would find plenty there to amuse him. "

Punch was a most affectionate little dog, something like a Fug and something like a Fox Terrier, and as clever, so the- boys said, as i(a wagon-load of monkeys."

The children had had him since he was a puppy, and loved him. very dearly. He was always ready to play, and never lost his temper. .

It. was a beautiful place wher<», Punch lived. There was a lovely garden, almost as big as a field, with a great pond in the middle, where water-lilies grew. ' Here the boys used to fish and sail their boats, afid Punch loved the fishing almost as much as the boys did.

. He liked to sit by the pond and watch the moor-hens, with the;little black ( babies swimming about among the' rushes.

One fine morning, after he had seen the younger children settled at work in the schoolroom, he sauntered across the lawn and lay down under a willow that grew beside-the pond.

It was a very warm morning; the sun was shining and birds were singing, and presently his eyes began to close; the *chjrping of a young sparrow overhead seemed to get farther and farther away he began. to forget where he was, and soon he was fast asleep.

Overhead the sparrow kept up his constant chirping. He was a very young sparrow, only a day or two out *of the nest, -and still unable to fly properly.

On the far side *of the pond he could see a bunch of his relations busily searching the lawn for something to eat.

' He longed to be with them, and he hopped from branch to branch till he was on the outermost twigs, right over the water. It seemed such a little way to fly, and his wings felt so strong—surely he could manage that short distance? Suddenly a little breeze stirred the twigSj and somehow he overbalanced —plop! He. was in the water, gasping and struggling for his life.

He was very near the side, just an inch or two away, and presently he found liis feet were on something solid; his struggle had taken him into one of -the pipes that carried the surface "water from the garden into the pond. • ',

With another-little struggle he was up the sloping pipe, and in a little dry brick chamber. Above 'him the sun poured through an iron grating. Though he was safe from drowning, he was'almost as badly off, for how could lie ever" out? '

Punch woke from his sleep with a start. Something was happening —- a flapping, fluttering s6un<S. seemed to come-from almost underneath him.

The grating a few inches away attracted his attention,* and rising to-his feet he jammed his-nose between the bars.

There was no doubt about it.:, something was down there. His nose told him it was a sparrow, but how could a sparrow be under ground? If it were a rat or a mouse he could understand it, but this was something beyond him.

He scratched and tried to dig, but the rough brickwork hurt his paws. The fluttering sound seemed to increase, and he grew more excited every minute.

The™ a shout from the end of the garden told him that the boys had finished their lessons, and he dashed off to fetch them.

"Huloa!" said the eldest boy, as the dog ran up to him and then walked away with his head over his shoulder. * ' Come on—Punch has found-somethings and wants us to follow him." Off they all went, Punch-leading the way.

"There is something down there,*' they said, as the dog sniffed at the grating. Prizing the lid off, one of the boys reached down and brought out the little draggled bird.

"Let's put it upon a branch," he said. "Perhaps the old birds will find it."

That is exactly what happened. Half an hour later the boys saw the oid birds feed the baby, arid entice it to a place. of safety^ while Eunch looked on, perhaps knowing he had saved the little sparrow's life.

Punch is an old dog now, but to this day he cannot pass that grating without eagerly sniffing in the hope that another sparrow may be there.

Strangely enough, by doing this he twice more saved a little bird's life-—once another sparrow, and once a young thrush that. had tried, to fly before it was quite old enough.' . .