RITA—A COUNTRY SKETCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 236, 5 October 1928, Page 6

RITA—A COUNTRY SKETCH.

We picked her up on the road perhaps a mile and , a " h l al f from , her h °me. It is one of those roads that motorists are warned to avoid Unmetalled, despised and rejected to-day, it has seen much traffic in the brave old coaching days. Its half-way house has been the scene of much activity and merriment. It was a very dark night and as the car, if one may use the term, pulled' up I held a torch over the back of the driver's seat to show her in. The driver called her Rita, and I discerned some tenderness in his tone and envied his youth. He was charging me what seemed a considerable sum to take me out there but no other motorist would accept the job at any price. We had been bogged a couple of miles back, but that intrepid youth had du» us out with grim determination and the patience ot Job. He would almost certainly be boeeed again going back. But he had picked up Rita and I felt sure that it was Rita I had to thank for my passage. My destination was an afforestation camp, and I was soon established in a whare with two young men, where I was quickly initiated into the mysteries of camp ovens and bush cookery. Then the catechism began. Who brought me out? "Oh, Smith, he was the only one who would listen to me." "Hah! did you meet anybody ,on the road?" "Yes, we nicked up a girl called Rita." "I suppose Smithy thinks he has a chance." "Well, It's my opinion he brought me out for the sole purpose of seeing T v?r° !, h ! d spent first dfl y in the camp I realised that every young man in the vicinity thought he had a chance." Rife is queen in that domain, sole and arbitrary; her wishes are anticipated and attended io without question She keeps house for her father, and she has all a j?i 88 °- a household on her young shoulders. And there is no other young woman within miles To know her is to love her." That momentary glimpse I had of her would have filled my heart with longing a few short years back. Her youthful laughter as she bounced in the back seat of that ramshackle "Lizzie" is not rivalled by the note of the tui. And she has no other rival back there. But the boys serve her gladly and try to outdo one another with their offerings. Smithy with his car, young Tom has a gramophone and provides her with jazz and music to her taste Bill is bent on acquiring a wireless set. At the week-end there is a pig hunt, and Rita is sure of an offering. The while she smiles equally on all. Her dark eyes twinkled with merriment at the universal homage. Her brown curls, fresh cheeks and shapely figure reduce all comers to immediate subjection. There is nothing countrified about Rita. It may be she has occasional longings for Queen Street, and she could without doubt hold her own in the afternoon promenade. But there on her native heath she remains supreme, a power and an inspiration. I have not heard in that camp a word of disrespect for womenkind. Rita smiles over all and the camp lives in an atmosphere of love and adoration and friendlv rivalrv " —R.J.