ELFIN LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 27

ELFIN LAND

I am a little Elfin man, Dressed in green and brown. Where do you think I’ve come from?— Why, I've come from Elfin town. My name is little Merry-Elf, Because I dance and sing, And lam head of the Elfin folk Who dance in the Elfin ring. Our tables are the mushrooms round. Our seats the daisies white; We’d love you to come to Elfin town One starry, moonlight night. We’re very busy little men, We paint the young leaves green, And guard, the baby buds at night From the insects we have seen. So will you write a little note To say you’re coming soon, And we will have an Elfin feast Right underneath the moon. We love our little Elfin town, So fresh and green and bright; We would not leave it for the world— It Is our heart’s delight. —June Bishop, aged 9. SAMBO AND THE LION’S TAIL One very warm day in very warm Africa, Sambo came out of his little mud cottage to go for a walk. And when Sambo went for a walk anything might happen. For the place where Sambo lived is a place of adventures and not always very nice ones. Creepy, crawly adventures, for instance, like snakes; or growly, snarlv ones, like lions. Today, Sammy boy was feeling quite happy, and thought lie would just pick some of the waxy flowers that grew in a spot that he knew. So he strolled along—till he heard a strange noise. He wasn't sure at first what the noise was. It might have been thunder or loud tom-toms. It was the most tremendously noisy noise he had ever heard in his life. He put one hand behind his ear and listened. There it was again! And then Sambo saw it—a great big yellow lion. Mr. Lion was staring hard at Sambo; and he seemed to have taken a fancy to him. Sambo remembered being told that a lion’s favourite dish was a little black boy; and when Sambo saw this lion sit down in the middle of the flowers he had meant to pick and. t augh, Sambo guessed be was thinking about that dinner he was going to have presentlyBut suddenly an idea had come to Sambo. He would hide behind a prickly thorn tree, the tree whose leaves are like little knives. What a good protection that would be if Mr. Lion should charge! So down he crouched and peeped at him through the branches. But that didn’t worry Mr. Lion. “Ha, ha!” he said to himself. “J have only got to take a flying leap over the thorn bush and where will little Nigger boy be then?” And a flying leap he did take; "but Sambo gave another, and was off in the opposite direction. “Help! Help!” cried Sambo, running for his life. He thought he could hear the footsteps of Mr. Lion coming after him. and he ran and ran till he was so exhausted that ho sank down on the ground behind another bush and peered out. There he saw an extraordinary sight. Not very far away Mr. Libn wassitting, making the most extraordinary noise. It was rather like rain pattering down on palm leaves. Sambo peered a little closer. Why, he was crying! Big tears were pouring down his furry face and making a little pool by his side. Now Sambo had a kind heart beating inside his little shining black body, and when he saw old Mr. Lien in floods of tears he crept slowly out of his hiding-place. At once he saw what had happened. In jumping over the thorn bush Mr. 1 Lion’s tail had been chopped off by the little knife-like leaves. “800-hoo!” sobbed Mr! Lion. “It’s the only tail I’ve ever had, and I’ll never get another. It has been a good tail to me.” At that Sambo’s sympathy began to bubble over. He quite forgot to be afraid, and only remembered that this was a poor creature in trouble. “Never mind,” he said, coming boldlv forward. “I will see what a I can do for you, poor thing. Where is the tail do you think?” “800-hoo!” said the lion ouite forgetting that Sambo was a tender suppei dish and only remembering ne was a friend in need. “I think it must still be hanging on the tree.” So off went Sambo; and, sure enough, there was the tail hanging high on a thorn. Very carefully Sambo climbed among the prickly branches and took it down. “1 know where there’s a tree from which the gum oozes,” said Sambo running off. “You wait here.” And in a few minutes back he came with some gum in one hand and the tail in the other. And then at once he set to work And when that old tail was fixed on once more Mr. Lion’s joy and thankfulness knew no bounds. “I’ll never have Nigger boy for supper again as long as I live,” he declared in his deep voice: and, putting his r*aw through Sambo’s arm. they went dancing off together, as merry as sand-boys.