Under the “Totem-Pole”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 783, 2 October 1929, Page 15

Under the “Totem-Pole”

Letters to Red feather are answered as follow:—Moon Glow: You will miss that popular patrol leader. Moon Glow. :sh© must have been of great assistance to Captain. Thank you for your St. Peter s notes. . . . Silver Foam: T hop© that concert , will be a great success, Silver Foam. Your notes have the true Guiding spirit. My best wishes to vour company. . . . Red Star: Yes, trees* are splendid companions. Red Star. If you listen closely, one day you may hear u. tree speak. Don’t you like lying under their green boughs and watching the cloud fleets sailing across the sky? The different branches are their ports of t all. The last competition winners will he glad to have your congratulations. Yes. I know those amusing “William” books. . . . Lone Wolf: My greetings and thanks, hunter of great trails. . . . Harvest Moon: Those Braves will be glad to have photographs of yon and Little Lone Pine, Harvest Moon. Yes, I shall write something in your autograph hook if you send it. A Wigwam thought for this Southern music-maker. . . . Thunder Moon: Greetings, Thunder Moon. We are glad to welcome this talented Chief into the Wigwam circle, and I hope >oa will make many friends among th** faithful ones whose names appear from time to time iu this column. Some good wishes for this new Wanganui member. . . . Still Pool: Your First WhitngarM news lias joined the great scroll. Still Pool. That was an interesting hike to the Abbey Paves. . . . Dark Flower: Your company lias surely been having a busy time. Dark Flower. It was very clever you all to prepare that concert without assistance, and 1 am glad to hear that it was such a success. . . . Amber Light: Good news. Amber Light. It should not he long now before you have a Girl Guide Company in Thames. I am always glad to help rny young friends l-y making their desires known in the right quarter. Please tel] me all about the company when it is formed. A Wigwam wish for this Brave. . Flvins cloud: So you have made the acquaintance of Eves of the Morning and Little Twig? Eyes of the Morning was the first girl to seek the Wigwam trail. “Blue Lupin” was a very popular store. . . . Great Lone Eagle: i otir Devonport news is very interesting. Great Lone Eagle, and I am glad that vou have those camping expeditions to look forward to. Bicycle patrols are a splendid idea. THE WORD “DUNCE” The word “dunce” has an interesting origin. A dunce is one who is .slow at learning, a mere dullard, but the word is really the name of a man who was anything but a dunce or dullard. Duns Scotus was one of the greatest schoolmen of the thirteenth c ntury. and lie represented the old learning. while St. Thomas Aquinas represented the new. The followers of Aquinas ridiculed the disciples of Duns Scotus and described them a> enemies of learning, and it was not long before Duns man became a term of reproach. The name continued long after Duns and his followers dead, and today we call a. dullard a dunce. A WORK OF ART | A great friend of the antique dealer was present when a picture was sold. “Was that picture you sold a real work of art?” the friend asked afterwards. “Not really,” replied an onlooker. “But the tale he told about it was.”