OCR Text |
Show Daddy s Fairy Tale ayr&w graham bowes ONE-EYED SPONGE Little Eugene, as you may remember, remem-ber, loved to sleep. In that way he was different from many children, for w h 1 1 everyone 1 1 k e to sleep aome of the time little Eugene always al-ways enjoyed going go-ing to bed. He simply loved to sleep. He liked to take a nap, too. He went to aleep very quickly. Sometimes h e would be speaking ond In the middle of a sentence he would atop and He Simply Lov.d ? !T to Sleep. that, he "ad ne to sleep. Not only that, but sometimes be would go to sleep before he had finished a word. For example, he might be saying: "I hope It will be fine day tomorrow tomor-row so I can go awlmmlng," and be would leave the word swimming rlfht In the middle. Or perhaps he would not eves get that far but would say, "I hope It will be a fine day tomor " and before you knew It he was asleep and sometimes he was snoring I Now little Eugene owned a sponge which was made of rubber but In a shape to look like a little man. Around the rubber sponge man's waist was a belt of white rubber, and he had white rubber eyes with large blue pupils also of rubber. When Eugene took his bath he osed this sponge. One night Eugene fell asleep In his bath which was a very dangerous thing to do and he was told that he must never, never, never allow himself him-self to do that. He had been discovered discov-ered before any harm had come. When he was taking his bath he roust take It and not lean back against the back of the tub to doze. He must do nothing but take bit bath when It was bath time. Of course he was so fond of sleep be would nometlmes try to get out of taking bis bath. Not that he didn't like to be clean. But sometimes he didn't think It mattered mat-tered If he missed a night or maybe two, or even three, or possibly I hate to say It four. That didn't happen often but quite often It was two and very often one that he missed. He used to think how much nlceT It was to go right to bed and curl his bands under his chin and sleep and sleep. When he would simply wash his hands and face and not pay any attention at-tention the little rubber sponge would look at him out of its rubber eyes, a really very sad look. "You don't mean to say you're going to leave me alone tonight," those eyes would seem to say. Eugene couldn't stand the look the rubber sponge man gave him. He didn't want to hurt the rubber sponge mart for that would spoil his looks. He wouldn't be so nice without hlf eyes and bis belt. His eyes were the most Important part of him, though of course he had arms and a body shaped to look like real arms and a real body, although It was all a part of the sponge. But the eyes were the main part of the rubber sponge man. Still those eyes did look at Eugene so when he didn't take a bath. He decided he would take out Just one eye. So he pulled one eye from the rubber sponge man. But the next night that one eye stared at him Just as hard as the twf had done before. Eugene simply had to take a bath. He couldn't stand that look. He would hurry through his bat and not take so long over It, but whet he only did his neck In a very balf-hearted fash-Ion fash-Ion the eye some-bow some-bow seemed to be looking at him. "You didn't do that very well, and here I am to help you," the eye seemed to say. So Eugene would do It much better. The eye seemed to stare at him in Just this way to make him wash properly. "You're a Bath "Really," said Master-Eugene Master-Eugene to the one-eyed rubber sponge man, "you're not a task master but you're a bath master, that's what you are." And the one-eyed sponge man seemed to wink very quickly. Just once, for In another second It was the same steady eye as before. |