A LITTLE WORLD FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 23

A LITTLE WORLD FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW

FRIENDSHIP IS A STEADY LIGHT SHINING IN DARK PLACES "THE Doorkeeper says that the Old Year has to leave the world haS llV « ail hls days > and 1 thought perhaps he nugnt u*e to come to Happy Town.” Perhaps we could build him a little inn in some quiet corner and make him a roseleaf bed,” suggested the Dawn Lady. °i d Year > but be really belongs ot us, Little Thought, doesn t he : The world has no need for him any longer, for his work is done. The little New Year will soon come riding in his chariot down the midnight heavens and two years can not live in the world at the same time. But, if we bring him to Happy Town and people ask, ‘Where is Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-seven. we can say that we have given him shelter because he is the year in which Happy Town was founded. ” °yy > said the Little Thought. “Perhaps he will grow young again and be able to wear a crown of January flowers When he has had a sleep we shall all steal in and tell him that he has come to live for ever in our little world for little people. On the stroke of midnight, when the little New Year comes riding down the sky, I shall take the Old Year by the hand, make him close his eyes, and bring him down Tiptoe Street.” Come along and we shall tell the Doorkeeper and the Joy Shop man all about it and they can help us to build the magic inn. . . . Why, look, the Doorkeeper is writing a poem and he is trying to hide it from us. Please may we see, Mister Doorkeeper. We are very kind critics.”

Oh, I know that, Dawn Lady, but the poem is only just started.”

“And my name is in it,” said the Little Thought, tweaking the sheet of paper from the Doorkeeper’s hand. “Listen to this, Dawn Lady. It beings quite well. . . . ‘Now, just perceive, dear Little Thought, what Father Christmas kindly brought—A set of buttons, gold and blue, to make my jacket look like new.” “As a matter of fact,” said the Doorkeeper, blushing like a schoolboy, “on Christmas Eve, just before that pleasant old gentleman called on us, I dropped twenty-eight pebbles down the Wishing Well.”

“And I saw the Dawn Lady over at the Wishing Well this morning,” murmured the Little Thought, “but she wasn’t wishing for gold and blue buttons. Oh, no, it was something more important than that. She was running her finger down the names in the big Sunbeam Book and wishing every one of her children a Happy New Year.”