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JACK’S SQUANDER BUG
AND THE SIXPENCE

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Jack’s Squander Bug
and the Sixpence

YOU all know your Squander Bug, although you
have never seen him. He is the imp who perches
on your shoulder and whispers, “Go on, spend that
money in your pocket. Spend! Spend!” He simply
hates people who save money. And he loathes any-
body who saves money in wartime.

Now just the other day Jack was given sixpence by
his mother because he had run the messages all the
week. His Squander Bug was pleased. “Aha!” he
said, “a whole sixpence to squander. If I can’t get
Jack to spend all of that sixpence this afternoon my
name is not Mr. S. Bug.”

Just the day before, Jack’s school teacher had been
telling the class how all the money that boys and
girls banked in their School Savings went to help
the War. So when Jack was first given the sixpence

he thought right away of putting it in his School
Savings Account, or of buying a 6d. National Savings
Stamp.

Then the Squander Bug went to work. “What
about some marbles?” he whispered in Jack’s ear.

“Well, I’ve got plenty already,” thought Jack.

“Yes,” said the Squander Bug softly, “but there’s
some lovely coloured glassies down at the shop.”

Jack, of course, didn’t know it was the Squander Bug
talking. (You never do. You always think that his
words are your own thoughts.) He’s a cunning fellow,
the Squander Bug. By this time Jack had made up
his mind to buy the marbles, and off he went to the
shop.

“But they are all sold, Jack,” said the shopkeeper
when he asked for sixpence worth, and Jack went
home.

The Squander Bug was angry. He puffed up his

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chest in his rage and danced a very angry sort of
dance. “If I’m not careful, the School Savings will
get that sixpence yet,” he thought. And strangely
enough, that was just what Jack was thinking.

The Squander Bug had a new idea. Into Jack’s ear
he whispered, “That old cricket ball of yours is just
about worn out. A new one would be great, wouldn’t
it?”

Jack thought hard. He didn’t really need a new
ball, any more than he needed more marbles. But
the idea pleased him.

“Cricket will be in soon,” said the Squander Bug,
ever so quietly.

Jack thought of the fun of having a new ball for
cricket and made up his mind to buy one the next
day. The Squander Bug was so pleased with himself
that he turned somersaults all round Jack’s collar.
Just then the lady next door came to the fence and
called out to Jack.

“Jack,” she said, “I’ve just found a box of old tennis
balls and a cricket ball that my boy Roy left behind
when he went into camp. They’re no good to him
now he’s in Egypt. Would you like them?”

Jack was pleased. But the Squander Bug wasn’t. He
was even angrier than before. He puffed out his
chest even more and, full of rage, danced an angrier
dance than ever.

“Drat the boy,” he said, “now he won’t buy that ball
he didn’t need. He might put that sixpence into
School Savings yet. But I haven’t finished with him.”
So he began to whisper again. “You can’t buy
marbles,” he said, “and you don’t need a ball now,
but you would get a nice bag of lollies for sixpence.
Think of it, sixpence worth of lollies all to your-
self!

When Jack went to sleep that night he made up
his mind to spend all the sixpence on lollies, and
the Squander Bug was so pleased with himself that

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he turned somersaults up and down Jack’s counter-
pane all night long.

Next morning Jack set off to school with the sixpence
in his pocket. He still meant to spend it all on
lollies. But just as he got to the gate and was waving
goodbye to his mother, the lady next door came
running in.

“Look,” she said to Jack’s mother, “a letter from the
Army. Roy will be home next week. Isn’t it
wonderful!”

Jack was pleased, too, because Roy used often to take
him to football before the war and had always given
him old tennis balls.

So on the way to school, Jack began to think.
“Money in the school savings helps win the war,” he
thought. “The more we put in the more we help.
The more we help the quicker will come back home
all our friends and brothers and uncles and fathers

who are away fighting. This sixpence is going into
School Savings. And every other sixpence I get.”
So, as soon as Jack got to school, in it went.

And the Squander Bug? He became angrier than
ever. He was so cross he just couldn’t speak. He was
so wild that he couldn’t do his angry dance. He
puffed up his chest and kept on puffing. He puffed
more and more till suddenly—pop—he burst!

That was the end of Jack’s Squander Bug—and a
good thing too. Jack had learned not to waste money
buying things he didn’t need—and to save all he
could to help the war.

Have you got a Squander Bug, too? Treat him just
the same way!

Issued by the N.Z. National Savings Committee.

Back cover

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Colour in Squander Bug

CONSENT No. PR. 1043
W. & T. LTD.