OCR Text |
Show W!fltflOU CORNER 1 $ I AND AN ELEPHANT I vKO h By WILLIAM CUTIIBERT 1 - tm Daddy could see it com-Iftft com-Iftft 'Cst settled to read the evening paper ?I Barbara climbed on one knee. Jceorge Henry took possession j ta other. . let the newspaper drop to the He couldn't read with a pair ftadi in front of his eyes. -4w old am I. Daddy?" Bar- ftat better than Daddy had a1ot He was expecting some-! some-! se "You'll be three next JjSt told he, Be thought that if he used a lit-.. lit-.. child psychology he could keep I, children's thoughts on their ,1 and birthday parties, instead 5?ving them think of that other J.- "You're Ave. George Hen-I" Hen-I" be said, "you'll soon be going chooL" ' tociorge Henry , said bluntly, "tell "ftrfltwas, that other thing that u could see coming. "Not now," Jddy groaned, "I don't feel like telling a story." j "The three bears, heh, George r Henry? Barbara chimed In. i flier settled back expectantly i b Caddy's arms. Their flannel pa-1 pa-1 jimaa were soft and warm as his ! ytns embraced them. "Once upon a time there was free bears." Barbara prompted. Mat could Daddy do? He jlmigged his shoulders hopelessly. The three bears lived in a" cabin it the edge of a woods." ). "No Goldilocks," George Henry i. j, "tell us about the three bears J ind an elephant." ' "An elephant?" Daddy didn't feel Ee plotting a new story. "It will have to be Goldilocks," he said. Barbara clapped her little chub-lj chub-lj hands. "Goody," she cried, "vhat does the elephant do in the liory,-Daddy?" "But I don't know any elephant liory." "Remember the one you read out of the book that you wrote?" This f George Henry trying to refresh j his Caddy's memory. f Daddy tried to think over the I, Juvenile stories that he had written i indbad had published. He couldn't i ptece an elephant story that had j, anything to do with three bears. i "No Daddy, it wasn't in the 1 book," George Henry 'suddenly re- membered, "you just told it to us." J The easiest thing to do, Daddy . decided, was to make up a story, ttei rush the children off to bed. "During the day," he continued, 3 Ihe un shone bright on the cabin . and kept the three bears warm." "What was the bears' names?" Barbara wanted to know. Ihere could be no question about the names. Whether it was bears, f-ih ducks or rabbits, the names l lad to be the same. I "One bear's name was Barbara, jj mother George Henry, and the J third. Sally." Sally was the children's eight-jeawjld eight-jeawjld sister. She had just started start-ed to take violin lessons, and Daddy ttuld hear her in her bedroom try-fa try-fa to squeak some notes out of the G itring. "As I was saying, the bears were bpt warm in the daytime by the W sun. But at night when the sun 3 J51 10 sleep, it got very cold, and I w bears had to keep a fire in the I barth of the open fire place." The telephone bell rang, and as " ? faiJdren's mother came from a kitchen to answer it, Daddy re-silent. re-silent. This was a rule in home. No one talked while 5me.ClSe W" speaking on .. 'i The children hugged against Daddy. Dad-dy. He thought they might go to sleep. Their mother talked for several minutes. Daddy gathered from the things she said that she was giving Mrs. Piper, a neighbor who lived up the street, a recipe for cheese Pie. When his wife went back to the kitchen, Daddy looked at the children. chil-dren. Their eyes were closed. Ah, no more story telling tonight, he thought. George Henry opened sleepy eyes. "So the three bears had to keep a fire at night" "Daddy began to talk softly, soothingly. sooth-ingly. This would put the children sound to sleep. "The bears had to have wood for their fire, so every day they went into the woods to chop down a tree." "Louder, Daddy," Barbara told him, "I can hardly hear you." George Henry wiggled a bit and asked, "Where's the elephant?" "The elephant?" Daddy had forgotten for-gotten there was supposed to be an elephant. "The elephant, uh, we'll get to him . . . the bears had to go to the woods for fire wood. One day Sally bear, was chopping down a tree. It was a big tree, for most of the small trees had already been burned, and she became tired. George Henry bear took the axe and began to chop chop chop." "What about the elephant, Daddy?" Dad-dy?" It was Barbara this time. "Suddenly the bears heard another anoth-er sound in the woods. George Henry Hen-ry bear stopped chopping to listen. Thump thump thump! All three bears were startled. They never heard this noise before." Barbara smiled, "Here comes the elephant" ' Daddy ignored the interruption. "George Henry bear dropped the axe and the three bears ran as fast as they could back to their cabin, and they locked themselves in." George Henry sat up straight, all sleep disappearing from his bright blue eyes. "Did the elephant chase them, Daddy?" he asked. Daddy sighed deeply and said sternly, "Will you two settle down and allow me to tell the story?" Meekly, George Henry settled back in Daddy's arm. "That night it was very cold and the bears had no wood to burn. They huddled near the damp fire place and almost froze." "The poor bears," Barbara mum- bled, he looked like she mlghl cry. "The next day," Daddy said hurriedly, hur-riedly, "the bears decided that they just had to have wood, so they went back among the trees. Aftei they made sure that no other ani-mal ani-mal was in sight, Sally bear picked up the axe and began to chop-chop chop-chop chop." "Please paddy, tell us about the elephant." George Henry held his hand against his mouth to hold back a yawn. "But before long, the thumping noise again rang out in the woods. Thump thump thump. The bean were too frightened to run this time, and suddenly a big animal stuck its head and long trunk be-tween be-tween two trees and glanced be-wildered be-wildered at the three shivering bears." Barbara clapped her hands. "The elephant!" she cried. "Let it be a good elephant, heh Daddy?" George Henry said. "All right, it was a good elephant, ele-phant, and it asked the bears why they were frightened? None of the George nenry said bluntly, "tell us a story." bears dared to speak, so the elephant ele-phant looked around and saw that they had been chopping at the tree." "So the elephant chopped the tree down for them," George Henry Hen-ry volunteered. Daddy smiled. This would be better bet-ter than bringing in a lot of complications com-plications and would get the children chil-dren to bed in a hurry. "Yes, the elephant took the axe in his trunk and chopped the tree into small pieces. The bears then saw that the elephant was a friend, so each gathered an arm load of wood, while the elephant took a big load in his trunk, and they all went back to the cabin." "Is that all. Daddy?" Barbara wanted to know. "Not quite. The elephant was so big that it couldn't go through the door of the cabin, and when night came, it had to stay out in the cold, while the bears kept warm near the fire." GEORGE HENRY could hardly keep his eyes open but he said, "Let the good elephant go inside near the fire, Daddy." Daddy thought for a moment. How could he get the elephant inside? in-side? Suddenly he knew how. "The following morning the bears were so sorry for the elephant that they got out all their carpenter tools and busily went to work." "Did they build another cabin?" Barbara asked this although Daddy Dad-dy thought she was asleep. "No, they just made a bigger doorway and the three bears and the elephant lived happily together togeth-er ever "after." Barbara and George Henry slept peacefully as Daddy carried them upstairs and put them in their beds. Then Daddy went downstairs, picked up the newspaper and settled set-tled back in his chair. But he didn't read the newspaper. It dropped to j the floor as he closed his eyes and went to sleep. New Insecticides to Save Considerable Grain Damage A new and safe insecticide material, mate-rial, which itself can save more I grain from damage by insects than that needed for the relief of Europe, now is in production, and insecticides insecti-cides made from it are being made available to the consumer in quantity, quan-tity, says Glenn Haskell, president of U. S. Industrial Chemicals. The new insecticide, which can be used with complete freedom where food is handled, is known as pyre-none. pyre-none. After three years of exhaustive exhaus-tive tests, it has been found effective effec-tive against a broad range of insect Ufe. The new insecticide Is versatile in Its application, and can be used in oil sprays, aerosols, emulsions, dusts or wettable powders. Its nontoxic non-toxic nature makes it safe for use under any circumstances. Haskell says. It can be sprayed on the Interiors of grain bins, where insects have been taking an annual toll of 300 million bushels of grain In the United Unit-ed States alone, or three times the 100 million bushels needed for the relief of Europe. It can be used safely on growing foods, feeds of animals or anywhere that food is processed or prepared for human consumption. It has complete safety in household or garden use, and can be used directly on animals, without with-out damaging effect to animals or to meat and dairy products. |