A Little World for Little People

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 466, 22 September 1928, Page 31

A Little World for Little People

FRIENDSHIP IS A STEADY LIGHT SHINING IN DARK PLACES t

INKY FOOTPRINTS

“W HA\ E something lo report, sd.id tlie Doorkeeper, mopping 1 his troubled brow and flicking a stray splash of Indian ink from his waistcoat. There has been rather a commotion in the Place-of-Y ou-Never-Can-Tell, and I am sorry to say that everything is in disorder.” “ W hy, asked the Dawn Lady, looking up from the pile of paintings in her lap, “what has happened?” “Well, you will remember asking me to reach down a drawing competition trom the top shelf? I found a very promisinglooking one called ‘ln the Spring,’ lying sound asleep with his head on his arm. I stood on the top rung of the ladder and poked him gently in the ribs. ‘Here,’ I said, ‘wake up, wake up. You have been asleep quite long enough, and you are urgently needed in Happy Town.’ He opened his mouth and yawned, . then he blinked at me with his jet-black eyes, stood up, stretched himself, turned a somersault, and sprang to the floor, leaving inky footprints everywhere he went. In a moment the whole place was in confusion—the puzzlers pounced from their jars and boxes, calling, ‘Stop, thief!’, the riddles began answering themselves, and all the tongue-twisters started stammering with dismay. I ran hither and thither after that inky escapee, but he slipped through a chink in the door before I could catch him.” “And where is he now?” asked the Dawn Lady. “That’s the trouble. No one cdii find him.” “But he must be found. He is needed in this week’s page. All the Sunbeams are waiting for him.’” “I know,” said the Doorkeeper, greatly, distressed. “I have already organised a search party and we have looked everywhere. First of all, we traced his footprints to the Joyshop, but he has disappeared from there. He is not even hiding in the chimney. Then Doctor Spring Sunshine dug over one of his new seed beds, but he was not there, either. The Pixie Postmen have turned out all their mail bags and ransacked their houses without success, and I have dropped 28 pebbles down the Wishing WelL” “Dear, dear, dear,” said the Dawn Lady. “I hope he is not hiding in any of my boxes of flowers, or leaving black fingerprints on the little d’oyley a Sunbeam sent me this week. That would never do. But the puzzle is to find him. Ah, here comes the Little Thought. Perhaps he knows.” “Are you looking for a little black imp, called ‘ln the Spring?”’ asked the Little Thought, gravely, “because, if you are, I know where he is.” “Come with me, then,” said the Doorkeeper, urgently. Ten minutes later a strange trio appeared across the grass—the Doorkeeper and the Little Thought, with the drawing competition held securely by the hands. “He had gone back to the top shelf and was sound asleep again,” said the Doorkeeper, sternly. “Then hold him still while I write him down,” said the Dawn *

Lady, greatly relieved, “then in a yJ . IT few moments he will be changed ,*+*r into printer’s ink, ready for the ' * Happy Town page.” *