GIRL GUIDES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 196, 12 April 1932, Page 7

GIRL GUIDES

FIRST ROTORUA GUIDES AND BROWNIES (Notes by Trefoil). • Dear Brownies,— I have a * little story- to tell you this week, all about the buttereup fairy is a patupaiarehe. What is a patupaiarehe, did you say? Brownie, doh't .you knQW. Patupaiarehe are the fairy fplk of thp Maori. They are not small like tlie fairies in the fairy tale ' books, but they are tall 'people with fair Skms and red hair ! They hve on the j hill tops and they'travel in the mist. The -next timp you see the mist creeping along the hills, you may be .sure there aye patupaiarehe • there, per " haps going a-visitipg. Now the fairies that you know must have come to .New Zealand with the white peoplq. I think they came hidden qway in the seeds and bulbs " brought by our grand parents to these shores. W e know they are here don't we? Haven't we heard their whispering and their tiny tinkles pf laughter in our gardpns? Onp misty day, when Fairy Buttereup was amusing herself playing among the golc^n buttercups of a little valley,.she heard som'eone , approaching. She -knew it was a faify person, but could not understand the heavy tread. Then the mist suddenly lifting, she 'saw a tall fair man with red hair. Who could it be, she wondered. She had not been long in New Zealand and sp did not know of the patupaiarehe. This man did not see the little. lady and he seemed in great distress. He gro-aned most dismally.

"Whatever Is the Matter" "Whatever is the matter with you? And who are you, anyway?" asked Fairy Buttereup. Because she used fairy language, he knew she was a fairy, but how dif- . ferent she was to his people the patupaiarehe. He could hardly see her at first, she was so small. But there she was swinging on a buttereup petal. He gazed and gazed on the dainty little golden fairy. "Well," said Buttereup impatiently, "who are ypu? Why are you miserable?" "I am Patu of the Patupaiarehe,"' he answered. "We are the real New Zealand fairies. We can only travel in the mist, and now this has lifted, I am left in this valley. I may be. seen by people and I have no way of reaching my moUntairi top home. But, who are you?" he asked. "I am a fairy Buttereup, and have only lately come to your country," she answered. "Well, you are very beautiful," said Patu, "and very tiny; you don't take up much room. I am sure you. are very weleome to stay here." ' A Gpod Turn "Thank you, Patu. For that I will do you a good turn. I will call back the mist." "Can you really do that?" asked Patu. "Easily. We buy our yeils for fairy weddings from t|ie mist and we have a special signal which never fails to call it to us when we need it." She took from her pocket the tin- 1 iest golden' whistle and putting it to her mouth sent pway a long call. Just one little quick whistle after another. It sounded very like. our guide rally whistle.

One minute after the signal, the mist came thickly down the valley, and Patu's face beeame bright once more. He could now safely return to his home. "Thank you, little Buttereup Fairy," he said, "some day I may be able to repay you." "Some day I will come to visit you,'-' she said. "Take these seeds and plant them near your home and watch for me in the spring time." So Patu put the seeds carefully away in a flax basket he carried on his back, and the next moment he was gone. Arrived at his mountain top, he planted the buttereup seeds in a little gulley there, and forgot all about them. One day when he called at his spring for water, he noticed some pretty shiny golden flowers there. His buttercups were out; and was that a laugh he heard? It was And swinging on a golden petal was his friend Fairy Buttereup. He greeted her gaily and perching her on his finger tip "he carried her off to see his people.