GIRL GUIDES’ CORNER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 925, 19 March 1930, Page 14

GIRL GUIDES’ CORNER

The Girl Guides are to be congratulated on their fine display of aquatic events at the divisional swimming sports held at the Tepid Baths last Monday evening, full details of which were published in yesterday’s Sun.

The North Shore, Devonport and Awataha companies and the Devonport and Cavell Rangers will be feeling particularly* happy this week. Featherfoot reports for the Maungarei and Panmure Company;

“We recommenced Guide meetings on Monday, February 10, and so have quite settled down now to our regular Guide work. We are having a series of ‘Tenderfoot Evenings’ in order to get the Tenderfoot work up to standard, and also for the benefit of our recruits. As soon as Tenderfoot work is finished, we shall have ‘Second Class Evenings.’ The entire programme for* each evening is based on cither Tenderfoot or Second Class test work.

“On Saturday, February 22, we hiked to Cheltenham Beach. The weather was glorious, but a little too warm to light a fire and make ‘twists’ or ‘galloping guinea-pigs,’ so we went out on to North Head and consumed large quiantities of orange cordial which, you will agree, was far more seaonable. From our position on the hill we could see the territorials at Narrow Neck signalling, so our Morse benefited from the hike.

“On February 25 the district Guide swimming sports were held at the Tepid Baths. We of the Manukau district combined with the Ponsonby distreit, for there were only two Manukau companies entered for the sports. Our company had only one entrant, and she did not disappoint us, for she won the under 14 and under 16 years championships for Manukau, while she has also the dive and the style races to her credit.”

Dreaming Wind, scribe for the First Frankton Company, writes: “We commenced our company meetings this year on March 1. Our Saturday afternoons have been spent practising l’or the following programme to be carried out on March 29 at our field day at Morrinsville: Horseshoe formation, inspection, march past, signalling, exercises, country dancing, fire-lighting, model camp.

“Although we have unfortunately lost a number of members, the remaining ones are working hard, and we hope that soon we shall be able to boast an increased membership. “On the evening of Sunday, March 16, a combined church parade of Hamilton Girl Guides and Boy Scouts was held at St. George’s Anglican Church, Frankton.”

Moonflower, scribe of the First Cambridge Company, forwards the following news:

"We resumed our company meetings at the beginning of February, after tile long holidays. Our first meeting of the year we held outside under trees, when Captain and Lieutenant and several Guides told us all about the Dominion Camp, which they attended in January, and they showed us many photographs of the camp.

*‘At present our company is busy practising for the South Auckland Field Day which is to be held in Morrinsville on March 29. The companies will compete for the Herbert Smith Cup, which is awarded to the company gaining the largest aggregate of points in all events, and which is at present held by the Morrinsville Company. “On Thursday, February 20, the Guides and Rangers held a social to say farewell to our president and Camp Mother, Mrs. Fergusson, who is leaving us to live in Auckland. “During the evening the guest of honour was presented with a beautiful cup and saucer as a token of the Guides’ love and appreciation of their Camp Mother, of whom they are all very fond." VIRGIL’S WOOD Trees are to grow and bear leaves of remembrance for a poet of two thousand years ago. Five hundred years and more have passed since Vittorino da Feltre had this charming idea. At last it is going to be carried out. People with ideas have to be very patient in this world. Vittorino was a lover of poetry, especially the poetry of him who has been called the Prince of Latin Poets. How pleasant it would be, said the scholar, if part of the soil of Italy were consecrated to the memory of Virgil and planted with his favourite trees and plants. A marble statue of Virgil would not be half so good a memorial as a living wood, for marble is dead, and Virgil’s verse flourishes for ever like a young tree. Besides, was not the poet a great lover of trees? So said Vittorino in 1400, but nothing was done. The idea was brought forward again in 1797 and 1910, but still without result. However, the time is ripe at last. On October 15 of this year Italy is to celebrate the bi-millenary (the second thousand year) of Virgil. The poet, who was born 70 years before Jesus ad gave the world the Aeneid, is tc be honoured up and down the land, There will be speeches, processions, and unveilings, and there will be a . Virgilian wood. : Ten acres have been set aside near Pietole, the poet’s birthplace. The site : slopes down to the River Mincio, and ; very beautiful it will be when the planting is done. Only the trees and flowers mentioned in Virgil’s poetry will be found there. Every growing thing will call a quotation to mind. THE WORD “WRITE” The actual meaning of the word » write is to scratch or cut slightly, as ■ when we score letters on a piece cl soft wood by scratching or cutting with the point of a penknife. It is a Teutonic word, and the method oi • writing practised by our Teuton forefathers was to scratch their characters or letters on bark or wood or stone.. They were not the only people to dc this, for the words scribe and script and inscription and other similai words from the Latin verb scribere to write, and words ending in graphy such as stenography, calligraphy, geography. and biography, meaning a special kind of writing or a writing about some particular subject, from the ; Greek graphein, to write, have exactly j the same meaning, namely a scratch- ! m= " ! During a severe storm in Kergadrier j near Lorient, in Brittany, a flock of I wild ducks in flight was struck by j lightning, which killed 20 of them.

THE RING OF FIRE On the very top of a steep mountain j stood a noble castle, whose great gates ! stood wide open all day*. In the keep ; of this strange fortress lay a maiden | fast asleep. It was no ordinary sleep that hels Brunhilda (for that was the maiden’s name) a prisoner there. The story goes that she had been a Valkyr, a fairy maiden who rode a flying horse among the clouds. But the god Odin had been displeased and had punished Brunhilda by turning her into a mortal and telling her that she must some day take a mortal for her husband. Brunhilda was terrified that she might have to wed some coward, and so Odin, in pity', carried her to the top of | a mighty mountain and ringed the mountain round with fire; so that he who would win his way to her must needs be a brave man. And here Brunhilda slept and waited 1 year after year for the coming of her unknown lover. , But at la'st he came, i Ilis name was Siegfried. He had been L told by the birds, whose language ho ; could understand, that a beautiful 5 maiden lay asleep on the summit of the Mountain of Hinderfiall, and that ■ whoever was brave enough to break through the ring of fire that circled ; the mountain and wake her should win her for his wife. *His horse was named Greyfell and he was as gallant J and high spirited as his master. Tor gether the two set out for the moun- ? tain, and after many days of hard rid- ‘ ing they came within sight of their 3 quest. Up the mountain side they t toiled till they reached the fiery bari rier, and here Greyfell paused and took breath, while the flames roared 3 and crackled and the black smoke 5 shut out the blue sky above. Sieg--3 fried leant forward in the saddle and whispered a word in Greyfell’s ear, and then the two of them dashed for- ’ ward into the flames. On, on they gali loped till the barrier was safely passed and they saw just above them on the crest of the mountain the shining walls of the castle where Brunhilda lay asleep. Siegfried dismounted and entered the castle gate. In the ! inner courtyard he came upon a figure ® in full armour, fast asleep. He ap- > proached the sleeping form and gently ;* removed the helmet. It was Brun- ’ hilda. h She stirred when he spoke to her and when she heard from his own lips how [ he had ridden through the fire and X smoke to find her, she knew at once * that this was the hero whom it was destined from the beginning that she 1 should marry. 7 That was the greatest adventure cf ’ Siegfried’s adventurous life. And you can be sure that Greyfell never forgot the day when he carried his master through the ring of fire. , PERFECTLY SATISFIED 1 f A boy went into a chemist’s shop to y use the telephone and called up Dr. 2- Brown. The chemist heard him ask f if the doctor wanted a boy”, and then, - to the doctor’s answer, he said: s “Oh, if you’re quite satisfied with him I needn’t trouble you farther." d The chemist felt sorry’ for the disapt pointed lad and offered him a job. r “But I don’t need one!" said the boy. “What!" exclaimed the chemist. “You’ve just been asking Dr. Brown 1 for a job.” “Oh, no," the lad explained. “I* nr. t the doctor’s boy. and I just wanted a to see how I stood!” THE CALL OF HOME Two cats taken from Church Stretf ton in Shropshire to Atherton in , T Lancashire have found their way back to their old home 70 miles away.