A LITTLE WORLD FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 152, 17 September 1927, Page 27 (Supplement)

A LITTLE WORLD FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

FACT AND FANTASY .FRIENDSHIP is a steady light shining in dark places WHY are you sighing, Little Thought ?” asked the Doorkeeper, holding his feather duster poised and carefully setting a large paper-weight on a box of puzzlers that was trying to spring off the shelf. “Little Thoughts should never sigh, especially when they have so much to make them happy.” “I’m sorry that the Animal Alphabet is finished, that’s all. I used to like the funny pictures and now there will be a blank space where they used to be. The zebra seems to think it’s a great joke.” “Don’t be silly'. Zebras are always very ticklish, anyway'. And who ever heard of a blank space in Happy Town? If you promise not to tell, I shall whisper a secret. . . . This morning I saw the Dawn Lady and the man who makes the pictures looking at something, and they were laughing like anything.” “Just like the zebra ?” “Oh, -worse than the zebra. The man who makes the pictures keeps very queer things in his Indian ink-well and a fantasy had just jumped out.” “What is a fantasy!” “I can‘t exactly explain it. Children love fantasy. So do their fcithe?s and mothers. It makes the world go round. It we had no fantasy, we should have no Happy Town. Fantasy and fact go hand in hand.’’ “But Happy Town is a fact.” “I can’t exactly explain it. Now, skip along, Little Thought. I must, finish my dusting. Look, there are some Pixie Postmen with their bulging mail-bags. They' are looking for the Dawn Lady.” “But I don’t quite understand what you were talking about and why the zebra should be laughing.” “Well, the very best thing to do is to ask the Dawn Lady what is going to take the place of the Animal Alphabet. You see I’m a Doorkeeper and, if I told the whole of a secret, I should not be worthy of my keys.”