FLUTE AND THE LILY-PIPE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1016, 5 July 1930, Page 31

FLUTE AND THE LILY-PIPE

To the west of ML Makebelieve in the Never-never-lands, lay the ruins of an old castle, where once brave knights and beautiful princesses had feasted. It was here in this lonely spot that Elute lived. lie was a mischievous little elf, lull of fun and mirth. Three years before my story starts, Flute, like many other naughty elves, had been banished from Fairyland for teasing trees. Teasing trees seems a stupid thing to say, but it was exactly what he did. Every little elf possesses a lily-pipe which has the power of making rain and wind, and one day, when Flute was feeling very frisky, lie blew all the leaves off the trees with his lily-pipe, so that they were left all bare. Of course, the poor trees immediately made new leaves, but no sooner had they completed them than Flute blew them off again. When Titania heard of this she decided to punish him, so she banished him from Fairyland. The next year when Flute made his lily-pipe (a lily-pipe has magic power for only one year), Oberon thought he would play a little trick on him. Bo ho put only a tiny bit of magic on Flute’s lily-pipe, and when Flute was blowing the leaves off the trees bis lily-pi fie burst with a loud bang, which mortals cirtl thunder. Flute’s lily-pipe burst into thousands of pieces which floated gently down to earth. When the mortals saw the pieces of lily-pipe floating down they were greatly astonished, for they had never seen anything like it before, and they called it snow. Now you remember that some trees still had their leaves on because Flute had not blown them off. These trees the mortals named evergreens. Now every year when Flute blows his pipe, leaves come off the trees, but his pipe bursts before he has finished, so there are always some lucky trees with their leaves on. But you must not think that Flute is an unkind elf, for he is always showing the blackbirds where to find the juciest worms, and the spiders where to build a web which will not bo swept away by mortals. —Alison Milsom, aged 12. THE PUZZLE OF THE PAILS Here is a positively marvellous little seashore trick for you to try on vour friends. First get two seaside buckets —one must be twice as large as the other. The puzzle is to empty three pails of water from the smaller bucket into the larger pail. It. doesn’t sound possible, does it? But it is. Get your friend to try first of all with water. He’ll find he cannot do it. Then you show him how it is possible. First half fill the big pad with sand, then pour in three buckets of water, and you'll discover that it will then hold them. Now isn’t that, amazing? ,