AMANDA MONTMORENCY MAGG
( A Menace to Society)
by
Lesley Gordon

AMANDA MONTMORENCY MAGGs was always dropping paper bags. Both near and far she gaily threw wrappers and silver paper too, and tram tickets and bits of twine— it makes one shiver down the spine ! Included in AMANDA'S sins were orange pips, banana skins, and all the bits she couldn't eat she brightly tossed into the street.
No need to ask where MANDY was. No need to ask at all, because the wretched child would leave her trails as obvious as any snail's. And friends and neighbours would remark how, even in a public park, AMANDA MONTMORENCY MAGGS would leave a trail of paper bags, though at each grassy verge or wood a most inviting basket stood, on which a notice large and clear read :
	"KINDLY PLACE YOUR LITTER HERE."
A quite considerable time she practised this career of crime, but Life has pitfalls, snares and snags for children like AMANDA MAGGS.
And one day in the local park, 'twas closing time and almost dark, and maids and children ran pell-mell before the keeper's curfew bell. An underling with spiky stick and stabbing motions sharp and quick, quite close upon AMANDA'S track was popping refuse in his sack. And with most commendable zeal, he speared a piece of orange peel, some cigarette-cards —quite a few—and then a magazine or two, and after that an empty tin, and then—
Into that sack went MANDY MAGGS amid the orange-peel and bags, and out—I mentioned it was late—beyond the keeper's clanging gate . . .
To some perhaps it seems a pity, but London is a crowded city and though the Maggses are bereft, there are some nicer children left.