IN DAYS OF OLD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 26, 1 April 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

IN DAYS OF OLD.

An oli.: bachelor who was exceedingly fond of children, went to a toy shop to purchase a gift for his little nephew. "Have you any genuine old-fashioned Noah's Arks?'' he asked. 1 don't want the kin ' with wooden toys that really look like animals. I want the kind we used to play wiih when 1 was a boy. The shopkeeper brought down from the stci-croom an ark of the old style, the roof being the lid and the animals all jumbled up inside. '•That looks like what T want,' said the purchaser, *ha king out some of the aniilus. "Ye*, tln-t looks like it. Noah the m.* size as Ham, the elephant no bigger than the bear, and the dove ot peace just the same size as the horse. There is onlv one more test." -Whit is that, sh-?" asked the shop••I want to see," said the bachelor, n , I K . pretended to put one of the pieces in '..is a.outh, whether Noahs head tasted lest the same as i did when I n-nsn bev. Thev told me in those days taht t'ie paint was poisonous, but it was awfully good!" An interested \isitor, who was m'«i„ g the final call in the tenement district, on rising, s. id : "W-ll inv ;;ood woman, I must go now Is there an; thin- I can do lor X °"xo, thank ye. mem," replied the sutmerged one. '< Ye musn t mind it it 1 don: return the call, will ye. 1 haven't the time to go slummm meicli."

T know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour— Thoreau.