Page:The Zankiwank & the Bletherwitch (IA zankiwankblether00fitziala).pdf/177

 overdoing it; it is all the result of what so many people are fond of doing—putting old heads on young shoulders.”

So the mystery was out. The old heads were unmistakably on young shoulders. And how very absurd the children looked! Not a bit like happy girls and boys, as they would have been had they possessed their own heads instead of over-grown and over-developed minds and brains. Old heads never do look well on young shoulders, and it is very foolish of people to think they do. It makes them children of a larger growth before their time, and is just as bad as having young heads on old shoulders. The moral of which is, that you should never be older than you are nor younger than you are not.

“But what are they doing with those bellows?” enquired Willie and Mande together.

“Raising the wind,” promptly responded the Zankiwank, “or trying to. When folk grow old before their time you will generally find that it is owing to the bother they had in raising the wind to keep the pot boiling.”