AT NIGHT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 648, 27 April 1929, Page 33

AT NIGHT

The night is dark . . . Everything is still . . • The elves are wending Their way up the hill. The fairies are dancing Around their rings; The pixies axe painting All kinds of thingsThe gnomes are having Their usual tea— Brown bread and butter. Too plain for me. But little mortals Arc sleeping fast. Happily dreaming Till night is past. Gloria Rawlinson (aged 10 >. THE SOAP IMPS Billy was having his bath. He was enjoying it immensely, because Nannie had left him to see what was the mat ter with Baby Joan, who was crying at the top of her voice. As soon as the door closed behind Nannie he began to play. First he got tiie soap and tried to make it float, but it would not, and sank every time Billy soon became tired of that, and began rubbing tlio soap under the water until the batli was full of foam. {Suddenly lie heard a jumpy little voice behind him saying: “Oh, really you are a nuisance, waking everybody up at this time of the night, by trying to drown us all.” Billy was so surprised that he just opened his mouth and stared. “Where are your manners?” shouted the voice. “Oh, lam so sorry. 1 did not know that I Wits drowning you.” Billy exclaimed. “I never knew that you lived in a cake of soap.” The idea seenn d so comical that he began to laugh, until he was stopped by another angry grunt behind him. “Well, you ought to, and it is our duty to make you remember that the soap is our home and that you must not play with it.” Then it struck Billy that he did not know to whom he was speaking. He turned round and there was the funniest little creature frowning at him; he looked just like a silvery bubble with a small, round head and little hands and feet. Behind him up the back of the bath extended rows of the smallest benches Billy had ever seen. They were tilled with hundreds of little Imps, lie wondered how they all got into one cako of soap. All these Imps looked exactly alike, only some were large and some were small. They all seemed to be suppressing their excitement, although some smaller Imps were talking softly to one another. “Silence,” shouted the Imp wlio had spoken to Billy, “As you have all been routed out of bed, I am . ure you feel that this naughty—extremely naughty —boy must be punished for what he has done.” “Hear! hear!” exclaimed some big Imps near the back. All at once it was picked up by some little Imps, and soon almost everybody was shouting “Hear! hear!” The Imps in the front row were beginning to enjoy themselves. They knew that when Uncle Egbert was cross, something was sure to happen. Uncle Egbert thought for a little while, then he stood up and addressed the excited Imps. “We will teach him a lesson by showing him exactly what happens to naughty boys who meddle with us,” he said. Suddenly there was a great hubbub in the bath. All the Imps were talking at one 3. Uncle Egbert ; gain gruffly requested silence. “You all know,” he went on, “what you have to do, because you have all practised. You may begin at once, and I will let you do it for five minutes; by then 1 think Billy will knovv better than to play with .he soap again.” While Uncle Egbert was speaking. Billy wondered what they were going to do to him, but he knew all too soon. Instantly the whole bath seemed to swarm with these Imps, that looked so much like bubbles. They started climbing over him. and oh! they did tickle him so. They got Into his eyes and hurt him dreadfully. Gome of them climbed into his mouth, and crawled up his nose and into his ears, needless to say leaving trails of soap wherever they went. Poor little Billy apologised and coughed, and spluttered, but however much he pleaded for them to stop, they flatly refused, and continued to torment him. There were footsteps in the passage outside and Billy found the bath deserted. All the Imps had vanished and their house, the cake of soap—only half its size—was back in the soap dish. “Really. Billy!” cried Nannie, as she entered the bathroom, “what have you done to your face? You must have been messing with the soap again.” Billy remained silent, but his Nannie noticed that from then onward Billie never played with the soap again when he was left alone. She often wondered why, though Billy never told her. AN OPTICAL ILLUSION Isn't It funny what strange tricks the eyes can play upon us? Here is a very smiple little optical illusion you j might like to try. I Get a Piece of white writing paper. ! and on the left-hand side of it ink ! in a little square, .on the right-hand | side ink in, in solid black, a little circle, about the same size. The square and circle must be about four inches apart. Hold the paper it ! arm’s length, on a level with the eyes, I and closing the left eye, look steadily jat the square. You will find that you can see the circle as well. Bring the paper slowly toward you, still looking at the square. You will soon find that the circle disappears completely for a ' time.