FROM A LETTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 29

FROM A LETTER

“Just down the road there is a big wattle tree covered with bright yellow tassels, like balls of sunlight dancing in the wind. Although it is a cold, grey day, that wattle seems to be telling of all the blue-sky-and-golden days that are yet to come. . . “1 was very interested in ‘the little girl with eyes like brown pansies,* and her toy monkey, Monty. I hope she will soon be quite well and I am sure Doctor Spring Sunshine will do all he can to make her better quickly when he comes. He is not very far away now. The Joyshop man will have to make some special rainbow joys so that the Little Thought can take them when he goes to see her. Please give Sunbeam Gloria and Monty the monkey my very best love.” —Jean Mclndoe, Hamilton. PUZZLERS Ward Diamond:— 1— A vowel. 2 Useful in schools. 3 Wrath. 4 For opening doors. 5 A consonant. —Sent in by E. Stone. Word Square: 1 — To wear round the neck. 2 Found with a boat. 3 Part of the verb “to be.” Answers to last week’s puzzlers: Riddle-me-ree: Daffodils. Word Diamond: M, Win, Miser, New,

THE HIDDEN PEOPLE So still, so moveless, are the trees to-night. So dark and straight against the sky’s j grey light. You would not think that there could ! ever be Some little living birds in every tree. 1 A thousand, thousand in a strange ( deep rest. Invisible and silent in each nest. Dreaming, perhaps, of song when dawn j breaks through. Or of swift wings that sail into the j blue. Or maybe they are dreamless till the 1 light, In their dark houses standing in the i night Dike anchored ships held to a harbour ! side While ~elds flow round them like a ; calm, black tide. To-night you would not think that 1 there could be A single living bird in any tree. THE PAPER MAN One day Diana cut out a paper man. She painted his jacket red with white spots, and his trousers black with red stripes. Then she made eyes, nose, mouth, and a little black cap, and left him on the table by the window to dry. But when the door was opened a gust of wind blew in and whispered. “Dance away, dance away!" and the paper man danced out of the window, across the garden, and down the path. Sometimes dancing, sometimes hopping, he went through the bars of the gate and along the road at a mad, merry caper; and as lie danced he laughed. Then the wind laughed too, and blew so hard that the paper man became quite out of breath with dancing so fast, and lay down by the fence to rest. After a while the wind noticed him lying there, and whispered again. “Dance along, dance along.” The paper man rose to his feet, and twisted and twirled with some dry brown leaves. Once a boy tried to catch him, but he skipped away far out of reach; and once a small white dog barked at him as he danced past. He did not mind that, not he. He felt so merry and gay that he quite forgot to be tired, and thought only of what a fine fellow he was with his white spots and red stripes and little black cap. . Then the wind tried to blow him into a puddle, but he just jumped into the air right over to the dry ground on the other side. He was so pleased with his jump that de did it again and again as he danced along. Across a hole in the pavement he went, over some planks; and then the wind lifted him over a watchman’s fire. For a minute he twirled there in the smoke, and then disappeared. The fire fairies had taken him to dance all day in fairyland in his white spots, red stripes, and little black cap, for they thought the merry little man a really fine fellow. OPTIMISTIC A man over sixty years old one day bought a raven, and when he was asked what he was going to do with it he replied: “I am going to see if it is true that this bird lives for 300 years.” HOWLERS Quadrant is a four-legged animal. Rhombus is a sort of omnibus. Inventory is a set of inventions. Retailing is to replace an animal's tail. Sirius is a species of cloud. Metaphor is another name for Satan.

THE GREY MOTH The Kins; of the Elves was raxl>< " miserable, and this was so unasu. I that everybody said he couldn't be very well. • i Mr. Beetle, who is the elves’ doctor. "Make him laugh somebody!’’ This was easier said than done. Everybody tried, but nobod> could manage it. All the funniest little elv os stood on their heads one after the other, but the King never so much as smiled. Then the gnomes all tied their long, white beards into one rope and had a tug of war. The King didn’t even bother to look! Six frogs stood in a row and made funny faces land they can make funn> faces, too), but the King never moved a muscle. Two baby monkeys who had come all the way from India without the a* mother, to sing a comic song, couldn't even make him look at them. "This can't go on.’* said Dr. Beetle. "He must cheer up. lie'll be really ill if he doesn't laugh." "Let me try.’’ said the Grey Moth, but nobody said, "Yes, do," because nobody wanted to encourage her there. Between you and me. she was not popular in elf-land, because she al ways fluttered round the fairy candles and put them out, whenever there was a party; but then, she couldn't help that, poor dear —moths are made that way. Besides, it’s quite possible that the elves were just a wee bit jealous of her lovely, soft grey wings. "You couldn’t do anything,’’ they said. “I could try," said the Grey Moth. "All right. Grey Moth," said Doctor Beetle. What do you think the Grey Moth did? She flew straight up to the King and tickled him under the cliin with her "feelers.” He tried not to laugh and he pulled his face together very tight, but in the end it slipped and he laughed, and laughed, and laughed! "That's right.” said Doctor Beetle. "He’ll get well in no time, now.” He did, because, of course, the doctor always knows. "It’s really all your doing," said the grateful little King to the prett> Grey Moth. "Now what can I do for you ?” "Well, Your Majesty,” said the Grey Moth, "it's very kind of you to think of it. What I should really like would be to be able to go to the parties without putting the candles out. You see, I do it time after time and I’m most unpopular and 1 feel that nobody loves me —a horrid feeling, which 1 hope Your Majesty will never have, and I can’t help it” -No, Grey Moth, of course y©« can’t,” said the King, kindly. "But it won’t happen any more. I’ll order the glow-worms to carry a covered light each—you can’t put those out. And, of course, he kept liis word. “UNMUDDLE-ME” In the game of "Unmuddle Me, ' you have to write the words of a sentence each on a slip of paper, as, for example, if there are ten players, write ten words on ten slips of paper, and the whole ten words must form a sentence. Of course, it is much more fun If the words can read several ways. Each player takes a slip, which is folded, and pins it on herself. Then they go hunting for their place in the sentence, and as they find it they stand in a row. Of course, the first word will be a noun or adjective, as, for example, "The cow stood in the field.” That is an easy sentence, but if you make "The cow and tlie bull and the dog stood in the green field.” it is much more fun. because there are lots of these, and any of the animals can be first. GUESSING PROVERBS "Guessing Proverbs” is a good fireside game when it is too cold to be out of doors. One player goes out of the room, while the rest think of a proverb. The girl or boy who is sent out then comes back, and begins the game by asking the first player a question, but the answer to it must contain the first word of the proverb. .The next is then questioned, and replies with the second word, and the game goes on. Xo answer should contain more than a single sentence. —Sent in by P. Hartnell. OF COURSE “Jack,” said Tom, "I went out walking with Jim the other day. He did not walk before me, nor behind me. nor yet on one side of me. Where did he walk?” "I give it up.” said Jack. "Why, he walked on the other side, of course,” chuckled Tom. —Sent in by Nancj* Waller.

A MENTAL SUM Teacher: “Jimmy, if you had three apples and Harry said he would give you four, how many would you have altogether?” Jimmy: “Three, miss. Harry would only be fooling. You know him *« well as I do.” —Sent in by Annie Archer.