Show LAST MINUTE BART one of these days you re go ing to wish you had learned to do things early barts bart s mother i would tell him over and over again you see bart williams was always wasting time or put ting things off till the last minute but when he heard her say that he would shrug his shoulders he d heard her say it for as long as he could remember and he never missed out on anything yet that was really important aw he would answer her I 1 im in just jus naturally made to do things quick ly at the last minute then one afternoon as he walked home from school with fred thompson they were dis cussing their hobby woodwork mg ing when fred asked have you heard about the contest 7 no bart answered what contest the neighborhood merchants will gia give a ten dollar prize to the boy who makes the best bird house the contest closes in two weeks entries will be displayed at school and the winner will be announced soon afterward I 1 im in starting mine today so I 1 can do a good job on it enter one too bart said enthusiastically that ten dollar prize is worth trying for I 1 should say it is come on over to my house this afternoon and we can start together bart scuffed his heels and looked down at the sidewalk well he murmured I 1 sort of promised the fellows I 1 id d play baseball this afternoon that s all right fred said ar riving at his own gate he paused and added maybe we can work together tomorrow sure bart answered his face br let s plan to do that the next afternoon the boys worked together at freds fred s house and bart got the pieces of his birdhouse cut out then he w wasted asted the rest of the time ex p with freds fred s jigsaw he did not touch the birdhouse for the next three days then with a sudden spurt of enthusiasm he succeeded in getting the sides nailed together he really I 1 in n tended ix working on it a little bit ea cah h day after that but there was always something else more in terp sting to do on the day before the contest closed fred asked bart have you finished your birdhouse yet no bart admitted have you youa yes fred replied and I 1 brought it to school this morn ing when is the deadline for get ting the entries ma bart asked tomorrow lo morrow morning at nine 0 clock do you have much more to do doa bart bould W not confess that his b inhouse did not even have the floor and roof in place yet so he said yes quite a bit but finish it after school t today oday hope you get th through rough in time fred said so do I 1 bart thought re mem member bering mg how much he still had to do that afternoon he worked in earnest nailing the rest of the bird house together when he stepped back to survey the fin dished product he saw that the floor did not fit tightly and the roof was slightly crooked but there was no time to correct those these defects he would paint it after supper and the birdhouse would be finished after supper however bart settled down in the living room to watch two of his favorite tele ision programs just before bedtime he remembered that he had not painted the birdhouse he rushed to his work table in the garage and hurriedly stirred a can of paint the paint went on in streaks because it had not been sigred enough he also applied too much in places and thick drops trickled down to the bot torn tom looking bad in spite of his efforts to smooth them out finally he put his brushes and paint away and set the birdhouse aside to dry next morning he went to get it to take to school it looked even worse by daylight than it had the night before he picked it up and was immediately sor ry the pain paint t was not dry yet yett quickly he set it down and looked ruefully at his hands and jacket they were smeared with paint it would be impossible to get it off and still take the bird house to school before the nine 0 clock deadline the picture of gloom he went into the house to clean up mother guessed that something w x as the matter what s up sona she asked I 1 paint my birdhouse soon enough for it to dry and now I 1 can t take it to school be fore the deadline why didn dian t you paint it soon era er I 1 didn dian t have time bart was avoiding his mothers mother s eyes I 1 d t finish it until yesterday af hernoon didn dian t you begin it two weeks agoa mother questioned and bart had to admit that she was right it wasn gasn t really that I 1 did not have enough time he said I 1 jut t use the time I 1 did have e have yes es son mother agreed smil ing you had all the time there was the way you used it is what counted she patted her son s shoulder understandingly but I 1 am sorry you wont have bour our birdhouse in the contest bart shrugged his shoulders and gibart grinned dined N no 0 n need eed to be sorry mom take a lo 10 look 0 k at it and you 11 see that I 1 didn t do a good job ob it wouldn t have won a prize anyway I 1 hope the birds don t care how it looks he said with a laugh next time III do what I 1 have to do right away |