UNCLE JACK'S STORY

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, 3 January 1907, Page 37

UNCLE JACK'S STORY

' Uncle Jack, please tell us a real wonder story !-? cried Hal, throwing himself down on the steps beside his uncle. ' > 'Just a little story abput a bad boy,'' lisped * Lucy, snuggling up beside her brother. Uncle Jack, stretched himself a lazily. 'Well, I don't believe I ever knew any bad- boys, but I might tell you a bad story ' a good boy.' 'Do..' ' Yes, do,'- echded,.<Lucy. > Now Uncle Jack had told so many, stories since breakfast that he fiTad.iiot many niore ideas in his' head, . and so he felt a little like teasing , the chil- , dren. He began this way : ' Well, once there was a boy named Bommy Teggs. He lived—' / _ - " ' Do you -mean ..Tommy Beggs -? ' asked Hal, a little timidly. . ' Why, yes,* to be sure, I did get that wrong ! Well, this boy Tommy started ouf one day to go^ to the village. He carried a ten-quart pail- of milk inone hand and a hand-saw in the other. He went gaily along, whistjing and throwing rocks at the fence pos-ts— ' v - . ' ' Why, Uncle.. Jack', did he set his milk down every time ? ' . " . ; ,-L.Why, " yes, yes, I think he must have done that.;;:" Well, he went . along, • looking oft at the sea, that lay.-* all behind Mm- / ./ ' Wasn't it in front" of him ? ' asked Lucy, eagerly. 'No, I think not'; I said behind him. He kept one eye on the sea- behind him and one at the long lane down which he was walking.' ' But — ' began Hal ; and then, not wishing "to interrupt, he contented himself with trying to look back at the door and at the same time keep an eye on his uncle. ' As he went along down the street he- saw something in a tree that caught his attention. It was a bird's nest. He shaded his eyes \s*tth the saw and saw . the nest. " I must co up and look in that nest," he said. So he climbed up nimbly—' ' He set his milk down, didn't he ? ' asked Hal> 1 Yes ; but he kept his saw because' he wanted to see,' Uncle. Jack waited for the pair to laugh- at this .-mild joke. • ( - 'He found that there were' three eggs^in the nest, and . as he was rather a .bad boy, he ' thought he would take thern^ out, "so he reached in the nest and "' took _ out the eggs, and Began to n come down the* tree hand over hand.

' But what- did he do with the saw ? ' * asked Lucy: '

1 And how could he hold the eggs and come down hand over hand ? * asked Hal. , J •

' That I don't know,' said Uncle Jack, seriously. 1 It « strange that I cannot explain that to' you. It must have that he could see by means of the saw that he roust hand ovev the eggs, to his pocket. <On thinking it over, I guess that was it.'

'Well, go on.'^said the children. „ • Well,- he thought, he would like to give the eggs' to his mother, so he set down the milk and the saw

under the tree, and sat down beside .them -to , .watch that jio one stole them while he .was gone, and: he rau back as quickly as he could down the lane—' 1 But he was under the tree ! ' exclaimed Lucy, who was trying) to ' help matters, 'all she coiukL •' He * could not run home while he was siting there.' Uncle' Jack rose up on his elbows and looked at the children in, astonishment. ' That is quite true, 'he said thoughtfully. ' 'He- could not" have done it— and— in that case it could- not have happened, and -thus— there is no story to tell, is there ? ' and Uncle Jack opened ihe magazine he was reading, as if that were quite the only way out of the difficulty. 'The children waited patiently. , ~ 1 But what about the bird's nest 1 ? ' questioned Hal, 'Well,; ..if the boy could not have>done what I said, he could not. have climbed the tree, and in. that case there was no one % to bring down the. eggs, and 1 so there .could not have been any one to see the eggs in the tree, and thus we seevtbat there was no one .to see the eggs there, and so—well, it all seems to be very unlikely. In fact, I don't believe any of it, do you, now, on your honor ? ' Uncle Jack looked at ' them with smiling eyes. ' Let's play horse.- 1 Lucy,' said -Hal. .- ... 1 I'll be the horse," r said /Lucy. ' Stories are silly.'-' After this Uncle Jac.Y, who was rather tired of stones,' read his magazine- coinforta/bly.