For the Children.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2425, 13 February 1909, Page 12 (Supplement)

For the Children.

IN THE DAVS WHEN MEN WERE GOOD.

In the days when all men were good they were given a miraculous power over everything. Lions and . mountains and whales and forests, and birds and clouds and rocks and ee%s, moved about from place to place just as men ordered. them to move. Every man was then a real king of the earth, amL all living creatures and lifeless thing#®' obeyed him. But the human race at' last lost its miraculous power th#fcugh Lhe laziness of a certain man. He was a Bulgarian, rnoodman, and one morn, ing he vent to a forest in the Balkan. Mountains and cut a bundle of firewood.

'•'Now march off home,” he said. The great bundle of wood at once got up and began to walk, and the woodman tramped on behind it. So far, so good. But the woodman was a very lazy man. “Now why shouldn't I ride instead • of tramping along the dusty road ?” - -A he said to himself. And he jumped on the bundle of wood as it was walking in front of him, and sat down on top of it. But the bundle of wood then refused to go. The woodman got very angry, and began to strike it angrily with his axe. But all in vain. And suddenly the heavens opened and a terrible voice cried out from the sky: “Man! You have been lazy and wicked, and, instead of being carried by your bundle of wood, -you shall carry it yourself on your shoulders'!'" And from that time the human race ’ lost its power, and it no longer happened that everything moved at its command. THE MAGIC PEN OF TRUTH. Jack Lind on saw it in the Japanese shop in New Bond Street. It was a lovely pen made out of green jade, with a golden nib engraved with curious signs. “I’ll buy that for Letty,” he sa*KTo his surprise he found its pric\, j was only a shilling . “I got it very cheap from a lawyer,” said the Japanese merchant. “He said that it had ruined his business.”

Jack, gave the pen to his pretty sweetheart, Letty Ferrars. and she used it in writing her loveletters to him. But one evening, alas! the lovers quarrelled. Letty went home, and seized the pen and wrote Jack an angry letter, sai’ing that she did not care for him, and would never see him again. But in the letter that Jack received she said: "Dearest Jac-k, —I am so sorry we ? quarrelled. I love you still with all my heart. Come and make it up. or I shall be‘ unhappy.” For the pen was enchanted. It wrote down what the writer really thought and not- what the writer pretended to think. On receiving the letter Jack ran to Letty's house. And she said she did not want to see him. hut when he showed her the letter with the pen of truth, she kissed him, and soon afterwards they were happily married. THE PRINCESS OF THE CASTLE. The Emperor of China ' was O'-N hunting by himself one day, and stopped at a stream and • began to drink the water out of his hands, as lie was very thirsty. On stooping down over the stream lie saw the face of a beautiful maiden reflected on the water, and. thinking she was standing behind him, he turned round to look at her.

There was nobody to be seen. But every time he looked in the stream he saw the face of the beautiful maiden. He at once brought all his wisest mandarins to the stream, and showed, them the reflection of the beautiful maiden.

“That is the Princess of the Ivory Castle,” said the oldest mandarin. "But nobodv knows where the castle

“T will find it,” cried the Emperor, “or spend all my life looking for it.” For three years he wandered over the world, aud at last he came to a lake in which lie saw the reflection of an ivory castle. He looked up expect-^—< ing to see the castle on the fliills \ above the lake. But the hills were wild and bare. "How foolish I’ve been!” said he. "Of course this is what I ought to have done when I first saw the Princess.”

Ho jumped down to the bottom of the la'kc. and there he found the ivory cattle. In it sat the Princess waiting for him. for she had also seen his reflection in the stream. And he led her out of the lake and her, and they lived happily together. . v,