Page:The Zankiwank & the Bletherwitch (IA zankiwankblether00fitziala).pdf/175

school children came bounding home from school, but children with the oddest heads and faces ever seen. They were all carrying miniature bellows in their hands, which they were working up and down with great energy.

“Oh, Mr Zankiwank, what is the matter with

those children in short frocks and knickerbockers? Look at their heads!”

The Zankiwank gazed, but expressed no surprise, and yet the children, if they were children, certainly looked very queer, for the boys had got aged, care-worn faces with moustaches and whiskers, while the little girls, in frocks just reaching