An Open Air Page

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 349, 9 May 1928, Page 7

An Open Air Page

For Big Girls and Boys

THE CRYSTAL POOL ASLEEP in the sun was a strange fellow who saw no sense in hunting. “That is all very well,” said the stern old chief of his tribe, "but if we-wQ]gPall born to your way of thinking there would be no food in the camp. You live on the bounty of your brothers and this must end. Go. take you bow and arrows, and do not return empty-handed.” So. Asleep in the Sun took his bow and arrows and went into the forest. ... It was very pleasant and cool in that green world of light and shadow and the leaves made a soft carpet for his moccasined feet. Presently lie came upon a pellucid stream cascading over a ledge of rock into a crystal clear basin. Making « cup of his hands he drank a long draught then sat himself down on a flat stone in tlie shadows to ponder the ways of his kind. Soon a rustle in the undergrowth betrayed a second presence, and. as he watched, a timid doe moved, alert and hesitating, to the brink of the pool. Asleep in the Sun “froze,” his dreamy eyes tilled with inusings. Suddenly the beautiful creature raised lier head and beheld him. “Do not. fear,” said the watcher in the shadows, “my heart knows only friendliness toward the creatures of the wild.” Then a strange thing happened. The doe advanced slowly and stood before him, gazed at him for a moment with trusting eyes, then nuzzled her moist nose into the palm of his hand. Later in the day Asleep in tlie Sun saw a bird with wonderful plumage flitting from twig to twig and. all at once, it alighted on his shoulder. “Are you not afraid?” he asked. “I have but to stretch a hand to destroy you.” The bird preened its glossy wings, and gazed at him with bright, fearless eyes., In the late afternoon he came upon a family of bears playidg in a clearing. “I should like to join you,” said Asleep in the s un. “See, I can dance the bear dance, also. And he took his place in that circle of strange playfellows. A beaver taught him how to build a dam, an otter showed him bow to swim under water . . . Hunger taught him that the green places have much that a man may eat. Some say that the bears showed him their favourite nests of wild lioney, an/1 that the deer told him where the choicest herbage was to be found. Be this as it may. Asleep in the Sun did not return to the camp of his brothers. Perhaps the crystal pool had magic properties that made him one with the creatures of the wild, but then, in fhe beginning, you know, he did not approve of hunting. —REDFEATHEK.