A Little World for Little People

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 31

A Little World for Little People

friendship is a steady light shining in dark places

DREAM SHIPS

•■ft I had a bubble pipe I would blow some opal bubbles like those I m the prize-winning story» said the Little Thought, pensively, -but I have never heard of a bubble pipe small enough for me to use. c •‘Beautiful bubbles can be blown with straws,” said the Doorkeeper. 1 shall show you how it is done one of these days. 1 like that story about the mermaid that was turned into a shell too. Once 1 had a glistening shell that used to sing wonderful songs to me. \\ hen I held it to my ear it used to tell me about far-away beaches, fringed with palms, and stars that came down to look at their reflections in the water. The foam that broke along the sand was shot with all the colours of the rainbow and htrange daik people made music there. .Vntl sometimes it would tell me about white-sailed ships with precious cargoes in their holds. They were the dream ships that were sc> often wrecked on unchartered reefs, but the shell knew all their secrets.” “If you had a dream ship, what would you like it to bring home for you?” asked the Jovshop man. “Something big and true and lasting, like friendship,” answered the Doorkeeper. “I would rather have that than silver and gold.” “Every day our dream ships set sail,” said the Little Thought, wisely, “and lam sure mine are never wrecked. I send dream ships to the Sunbeams and they always reach them.” “Like the feathers 1 send,” called the Woodpecker. “They skim the wind on an even keel.” “What a nautical expression for a Woodpecker,” laughed Summer lime, M.D., “How can feather sail on an even keel?” Just watch, and you shall see,” chuckled the "Woodpecker, setting a beautiful, soft, downy one afloat on the mild Happy Town breeze. “See, it is like a thistledown ship sailing on an even keel. Some Sunbeam is sure to find it.” “Soon some other dream ships will be set afloat,” said the Dawn Lady, who had been listening to the conversation. “But we shall not be able to launch them without the help of the Sunbeams. I wonder how many little Happy Town people are thinking of those other children who may not be able to have a holiday unless we can save plenty of pennies to make it possible? Yesterday, in the Outside World, I saw a little boy with grubby bare feet and a thin, pinched face, staring in at a pastry-cook’s window. He was hungry, and lie is only one of thousands. The hold of his dream ship was empty.” “I think I shall visit him with my Avee lantern,” in used the Little Thought, “and then he, . too, Avill know that ‘Friend- f ship is a steady light shining Olaa in dark places.’ ” — — *