THE POT OF GOLD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1034, 26 July 1930, Page 29

THE POT OF GOLD

“And at the foot of the rainbow/* read Anne's mother, “there is a pot of gold. The Dust Fairies who make the rainbow hide all their gold-dust there, and sometimes if you watch carefully on a sunshowery day, you may see the tiny Dust Fairies hurrying down the rainbow steps with their tiny hands full of gold-dust; but search as you will, you will not find the Rainbow’s end.” “There,” said Anne’s mother, “that’s all for tonight. Now go to sleep, and perhaps you’ll dream of the Dust Fairies or the pot of gold.” So Anne snuggled down in bed and soon fell asleep. But she did not dream either of the Dust Fairies or the gold, no, she dreamt she found the rainbow’s end. In her dream she was standing in a field in the early morning. The grass was covered with diamond drops of dew, and the bushes seemed as though they were hung with moonstones. A<- thin mist hung over all. Then there appeared in the sky a glorious arc of wistaria blue, pale pink, and green and gold. And as it curved over the sky, Anne saw’, on a little hillock not far away, the end, the very end, of the rainbow. Next morning, when she told her mother of the dream, her mother laughed and said. “Well, perhaps, if you can find a field, you will find the end of the rainbow, too.” For, you see, Anne lived in the town, and had not seen any fields since she was four, and now she was eight. Anne had almost, but not quite, forgotten the story of the Rainbow’s End, when a month afterward, she went with a number of her little friends out blackberrjing. They set out early, and took a tramcar to the outskirts of the city. Then they walked until they came to ’.he field and the blackberry bushes, and there they stopped. All day long Anne gathered blackberries. She was sure she had never been so happy in her life. To run about in the long green paddocks in the sun, to see the birds flitting all around, and to g&ther the sweet, black fruit. It was almost tea-time when the children left for home, and somehow or other, Anne, who wanted to have just one look round, got left behind. Now to be left all alone in some strange place is most disconcerting, and Anne was rather bewildered at first, but she remembered the way they had come, so she set off by herself. All at once a rainbow appeared in the sky, and as the shadows were creeping up, Anne remembei'ed in a flash that this was the very place of her dreams. In front of her glimmered the rainbow; she saw it end at a little mound. Anne thought very quickly and, grasping her blackberry stick, she ran across and stood . right at the foot of the rainbow! Quickly she set to work and dug up the grass. She dug for some time, but no pot of gold did she find. Disappointed, Anne brought out her stick, and saw something gleaming on its end. She pulled it oft:, and rubbing away the dirt found that it was a ring set with diamonds and emeralds. Anne forgot all about the pot of gold; she was too anxious to get home. When she reached the tramlines she found the others had waited for her. but she said nothing until she reached home and her mother. When Anne showed her mother what she had found at the rainbow’s end, she exclaimed, “Oh! This is worth such a lot,” arid she immediately advertised the find in the newspaper. It was soon claimed, and the reward that Anne received, her mother said, was just as good as a pot of gold. —Roy Neely, aged 14.