DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1007, 25 June 1930, Page 16

DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE

IN a certain pool in a certain park there lived a beautiful white swan that skimmed the water like a graceful boat, and the children came daily to the brink of the pool to feed her. In the same pool a grey drake sported—an ungainly creature with beady eyes and a sense of humour. When the children arrived he would give diving exhibitions to attract their attention and was rewarded sometimes by stray tit-bits of food. Often he would waddle after them, trying in his own foolish way to make friends. They loved the swan because of her beauty, but the drake was dear to them because of his playfulness and his efforts to amuse.

“I wish you would find somewhere else to swim,” said the swan one day, moving across the water like a stately galleon. “While you are here this pool has no dignity.” “This pool is a little world in itself,” replied the drake. “My ugliness adds to your beauty, and your dignity to my lack of that quality. Why should we quarrel? In the world there are people as handsome as you, but there are also comical people with turned-up noses. Life would be dull indeed were there no variety.” And the drake tip-tilted and dived under the water just to show his independence, while the swan sailed on with a more queenly air than ever. And the children came to the water’s edge, quite impartial in their care for the two, for they loved the swan for her beauty and the drake because of his foolish ways. REDFEATHER.