CHAPTER VII - by the Editors And so when the dragon was dead there were lots of mice, because he used to kill them for his tea but now they rapidly multiplied and ravaged the country, so the fair lady Alicia, sometimes called the Princess, had to say she would not marry any one unless they could rid the country of this plague of mice. Then the Prince, whose real name didn't begin with N, but was Osrawalddo, waved his magic sword, and the dragon stood before them, bowing gracefully. They made him promise to be good, and then they forgave him; and when the wedding breakfast came, all the bones were saved for him. And so they were married and lived happy ever after.
(What became of the other stranger? NOEL.
The dragon ate him because he asked too many questions. EDITORS.)
This is the end of the story.
Instructive it only takes four hours and a quarter now to get from London to Manchester; but I should not think any one would if they could help it.
A dreadful warning. A wicked boy told me a very instructive thing about ginger. They had opened one of the large jars, and he happened to take out quite a lot, and he made it all right by dropping marbles in, till there was as much ginger as before. But he told me that on the Sunday, when it was coming near the part where there is only juice generally, I had no idea what his feelings were. I don't see what he could have said when they asked him. I should be sorry to act like it.
Scientific Experiments should always be made out of doors. And don't use benzoline.
DICKY.
(That was when he burnt his eyebrows off. ED.)
The earth is 2,400 miles round, and 800 through - at least I think so, but perhaps it's the other way.
DICKY.
(You ought to have been sure before you began. ED.)
Scientific Column in this so-called Nineteenth Century Science is but too little considered in the nurseries of the rich and proud. But we are not like that.
It is not generally known that if you put bits of camphor in luke-warm water it will move about. If you drop sweet oil in, the camphor will dart away and then stop moving. But don't drop any till you are tired of it, because the camphor won't any more afterwards. Much amusement and instruction is lost by not knowing things like this.
If you put a sixpence under a shilling in a wine-glass, and blow hard down the side of the glass, the sixpence will jump up and sit on the top of the shilling. At least I can't do it myself, but my cousin can. He is in the Navy.
Answers to Correspondents Noel. You are very poetical, but I am sorry to say it will not do.
Alice. Nothing will ever make your hair curl, so it's no use.
Some people say it's more important to tidy up as you go along. I don't mean you in particular, but every one.
H. O. We never said you were tubby, but the Editor does not know any cure.
Noel. If there is any of the paper over when this newspaper is finished, I will exchange it for your shut-up inkstand, or the knife that has the useful thing in it for taking stones out of horses' feet, but you can't have it without.
H. O. There are many ways how your steam engine might stop working.
You might ask Dicky. He knows one of them. I think it is the way yours stopped.
Noel. If you think that by filling the garden with sand you can make crabs build their nests there you are not at all sensible.
You have altered your poem about the battle of Waterloo so often, that we cannot read it except where the Duke waves his sword and says some thing we can't read either. Why did you write it on blotting-paper with purple chalk? ED.
(Because YOU KNOW WHO sneaked my pencil. NOEL.)
Poetry The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, And the way he came down was awful, I'm told;
But it's nothing to the way one of the Editors comes down on me, If I crumble my bread-and-butter or spill my tea.
NOEL.
Curious Facts If you hold a guinea-pig up by his tail his eyes drop out.
You can't do half the things yourself that children in books do, making models or soon. I wonder why?
ALICE.
If you take a date's stone out and put in an almond and eat them together, it is prime. I found this out.
SUB-EDITOR.
If you put your wet hand into boiling lead it will not hurt you if you draw it out quickly enough. I have never tried this.
DORA.
The Purring Class (INSTRUCTIVE ARTICLE)
If I ever keep a school everything shall be quite different.
Nobody shall learn anything they don't want to. And sometimes instead of having masters and mistresses we will have cats, and we will dress up in cat skins and learn purring. 'Now, my dears,' the old cat will say, one, two, three all purr together,' and we shall purr like anything.
She won't teach us to mew, but we shall know how without teaching.
Children do know some things without being taught.
ALICE.
Poetry (TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH BY DORA)
Quand j'etais jeune et j'etais fou J'achetai un violon pour dix-huit sous Et tous les airs que je jouai Etait over the hills and far away.
ANOTHER PIECE OF IT
Mercie jolie vache qui fait Bon lait pour mon dejeuner Tous les matins tous les soirs Mon pain je mange, ton lait je boire.
Recreations It is a mistake to think that cats are playful. I often try to get a cat to play with me, and she never seems to care about the game, no matter how little it hurts.
H. O.
Making pots and pans with clay is fun, but do not tell the grown-ups. It is better to surprise them; and then you must say at once how easily it washes off - much easier than ink.
DICKY.
Sam Redfern, or the Bush ranger's Burial BY DICKY 'Well, Annie, I have bad news for you,' said Mr Ridgway, as he entered the comfortable dining-room of his cabin in the Bush. 'Sam Redfern the Bushranger is about this part of the Bush just now. I hope he will not attack us with his gang.'
'I hope not,' responded Annie, a gentle maiden of some sixteen summers. just then came a knock at the door of the hut, and a gruff voice asked them to open the door.
'It is Sam Redfern the Bushranger, father,' said the girl.
