A LITTLE WORLD FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 276, 11 February 1928, Page 27

A LITTLE WORLD FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

PATCHWORK QUILTS

FRIENDSHIP IS A STEADY LIGHT SHINING IN DARK PLACES "ANB, two, sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, twenty-seven. . . » V Oh, Dawn Lady, the new Sunbeams are coming down Tiptoe Street so quickly that I can’t count them. I haven’t nearly enough fingers. Please will you hold otit your hands so that I ean use your fingers, too. And please will you ask that little boy with the bright eyes and the sailor suit to stand still so that I ean count him. . . . Oh, thank you, little boy. Now you can join the others.” “Yon are having a busy time, Little Thought, and just see what numbers have brought their pictures of the ‘Squirrel Babies.’ I spread them out on the grass under the Happiness Tree this morning and they looked like the pattern of a beautiful big patchwork quilt. Some of them are wonderfully painted.” “Yes, I know,” said the Little Thought. “I stole ijp behind you to look at them and some of the Sunbeams have made patchwork quilts, too, for those squirrel babies. . . . Where is the Doorkeeper, I wonder ?” “He’s sitting over here on the steps of the Flace-of-You-Never-Can-Tell,” called the Joy Shop man, “but although I have told him all the funny stories I have ever heard, I can’t coax the ghost of a smile out of him. Please come over and see if you ean cheer him up.” “Why, Mister Doorkeeper,” asked the Dawn Lady, “what is the matter?” “Oh, there’s really nothing the matter,” answered the Doorkeeper, rather faintly. “I just happened to see the Sunbeams’ paintings and I know that you won’t want to look at mine, even through your rose-coloured spectacles. I can’t get the cradle right anyway, and all the Sunbeams have managed it so splendidly. Can’t you think of some way to cheer me up?” “Why, of course I can. You shall have the six best paintings to frame and hang on the walls’in the Place-of-You-Never-Can-Tell.” “Hurrah!” cried the Doorkeeper with a sudden whoop of 3oy, flinging his hat high in the air. “And there goes the Little Thought to ring the Competition Bell again. What' is going to happen this time?” “Oh,” answered the Dawn Lady, “this is a test for originality. The Sunbeams are going to draw an animal that was never in the Ark.” . The Doorkeeper looked hastily round in search of inspiration, and suddenly swung the Joy Shop man round and looked him square in the eye. “Oh, no you don’t!” said the Joy Shop man in the greatest dismay, covering his face with both hands. ,