BEDTIME STORY

Taupo Times, Volume IV, Issue 174, 27 May 1955, Page 3

BEDTIME STORY

Crosswords He was studying a six-letter blank in the crossword puzzle, the clue to which read : "A ducking was good for them, but not if they were beheaded." At this point came an interruption. "When are you going to empty those buckets?" "Presently." "You said that yesterday, and they're still there !" He got up from his sunny corner on the sofa and emptied the buckets. He returned to the sofa and took up the crossword puzzle again. Came an interruption. "When are you going to shave? You look awful !" • "Presently." "Always 'presently' — never 'at once.' " He got up, went to the bathroom, and shaved because he looked awful and because he could do something at once — at least, for once. He could also be thinking about that six letter word. En route to his seat on the sofa he was stopped in his tracks- ^ "Have you done anything about that leak in the woodshed after yesterday's downpour?" "Not yet." "Another 'presently.' " "Better wait till the roofs thoroughly dry." "Wait, wait, wait! Always wait!" He went and looked at the woodshed roof. Nothing serious. "I'll do it to-morrow." 'Tll remind you !" "I know you will." He went back to the sofa and picked up the crossword. "Don't put your feet up on the end of the sofa. The covers have just been cleaned !" "Sorry !" He re-arranged his feet. "Must you have both bars on in the radiator?" "I'm cold !" "Think of the electricity bill you're running up." "I'm thinking of the temperature I'm running up — I've got a cold !" "If you coddle yourself up like that and • then go outside — as I know you will — you'll get pneumonia and die !" " 'Tlireatened men live long,' " he quoted. Then he picked up the puzzle, frowning at the clue to the six-letter blank : "A ducking was good for them; but not if they were beheaded." Suddenly the frown faded. He grinned as he blocked in the missing word : "S-C-O-L-D-S" — ( D. ) (Note: In the good old days of long ago scolds of both sexes were liable to be strapped to a chair at the end of a bearn overhanging the village pond and ducked to cool their ardour. Quarrelsome married couples were dealt with in the same way, strapped back-to-back, as also were brewers of bad beer and bakers of bad bread.— D.)