Xmas Collaboration.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8011, 23 December 1905, Page 4

Xmas Collaboration.

„ railway carriage was hot and clow, 3eb* had almost exhausted Mis* Frayne'a Mtience. The yoong man in the seat behind gave no sign of curiosity, bat he had been watching the two ever since the train uftfawlene, He now saw the little girl yawn listlessly, posh back her curia, and start down on one of her periodical trips for water at the other end of the car. As she retained, he displayed an illustrated paper enticingly, so that the coloured pictures on •he back shonld catch her eye. ®®ba paused beside his seat, looked with a hint smile at one of the caricatures, and then edged a little closer.

" Wouldn't you like to see the pictures ?" asked the young man. "Come and sit here, ll you like." Beba glanced at Miss Frayne, who had taken up her novel with apparent satisfaction at the respite, and then sat down beside the stranger. The young man looked at her good naturedly. " I'm abaid you'll find it rather stupid," ha said. "There's never anything but tramps ill the comic papers nowadays." "I wish they'd put in princesses and dragons and fairies, and things like that," Beba complained, turning the pages over soornfally. "ton like fairy stories?" inquired the }oung man.

"Yes," said Beba, putting down the paper. " Do yon know any ? " The young man seemed embarrassed for a moment. Miss Frayne in the seat ahead, laid down her book and looked out of the window, after a careless glance over her ihouldu at the two.

* " No," the young man said ; " I'm afraid I don't." » " Couldn't you make one np? My uncle Fred can," Beba pursued. The yoong man gazed straight ahead of him at a tortoiseshell pin in the back of Miss Frayne's hair. " Yes," he said, with a sudden impulse, " I think I might" Beba settled herself more comfortably and looked up at him with expectation. "Please make it about a princess," she said. "Of course 1 It couldn't be a fairy story ■lie," was the answer. "Well, there was once a princess; she was very beautiful, and she had dark brown hair."

"The color of my Aunty's?" Beba asked, waving her hand towards the seat in front of them.

" Exactly! " said the young man. Miss Frayne moved a bit uneasily. " Her name was Nedentbe," he went on. " I never heard that name before," Beba interrupted. Does it mean anything in the back of the dictionary? 'Beba' means • jojful messenger.'" " It means forgetfalness," the story-teller informed her. " You see, she was so pretty that she made people forget everybody else. Well, the princess lived in a castle that flew through the air. She was enchanted, and though there were many others in the castle with her, she couldn't speak to anyone." " Who enchanted her 1" lieba asked. " A wicked fairy named Grundy," said the young man. The head in front of him wa9 now sloping at an angle of careless indifference, but the pink roses on the hat began to shake in a tremor of amusement. "Did she want to speak to anybody 7" Beba uked gravely. " I don't quite know," was the reply. " Probably not." | Miss Frayne took up her book again and began to read. " There was a yoang man in the castle," be continued." and he determined to break the spell." "Was he a prince 7" Beba inquired. "No, he waiapoet," the young man replied, after do* emriaeratioD. " Now, this horrid fsirj Cr*n4y kid made it impossible for the princess to talk to any one unless he had a littie white square with a magic word written en it, and as the poet didn't have one, of conrse he couldn't talk to her." "What was his name? " lteba demanded. " Rebn," Miss Frayne called over the hack •f tlic neat, " come here dear." " What was his name ? " the little girl repeated persistently, rising slowly and reluctantly in obedience to the summons.

" Stoughton," said the young man. " But you'd better go now, for your anntie wants you." He took up his hook as she left, and although it was upside down he did not seem to notice the fact as the* two whig* pered together on the seat in front of him. Suddenly Beba turned round and gazed at him frankly. "But he's awfully nice, and he's got a gold pin in his vest just like uncle Fred's," she remarked audibly to her companion. Miss Frayne remonstrated in whisper?.

" He was telling me a fairy story," Beba went on. " You might let me wait and hear the end of it. Then, won't yon go on with it, Aanty May ?" Afi Miss Frayne tamed to coax the little girl back into the place beside her, she caught the young man in the middle of an exceedingly indiscreet smile. Her lips tightened and her chin tilted.

"Yes,l'll finish it for you, Beba," she ■u'd quickly. It was now the young'man's torn to look out of the ear window, but she gave him the benefit of her profile as she talked to the little girl. "The princess didn't mind being enchanted & bit: in fact, she rather like it, as almost every one in the flying palace bored her."

" Didn't she like Stoughton ?" Reba put in innocently. Miss Frayne gasped. The yonng man leaned forward to put his book into a case at his feet.

" She had never seen him, and didn't know he was there," said Beba's aunt' distinctly.

"Perhaps she was afraid of poek," haiaided Ueba.

Miss Frayne ignored the suggestion, and went on : " Now, this princess bad decided that she would never speak to an; man anless be eoald satisfy her in three things. First, he mast be clever enongh to do something that no one bad ever done for ber before ; second, he most never allow himself or her to appear ridiculous, no matter how embarrassing a situation he was placed in, and third, he must give her something'she wanted more than anything else." " She was rather hard to please, wasn't ■he ? Did the poet succeed in an; ol the things ?" Beba asked. Kiss Frayne glanced behind her, and she «ugbt a swift glance from beneath a pair of raised eyebrows. "He succeeded in the first thing all right," she said to her niece. " He succeeded in talking to her without ■peaking to her." " How coold he do that? " " Oh, he spoke out of the window, and the wind blew the words to her." •■What waa the second thing he did?" "I'll tell too some other time," ber annt replied, gathering np her books. " We're almost at the Beach, and we must get onr things ready." As this was Btoughton's destination also, he followed them ofi the train and entered a 'bus for his hotel. Miss Frayne and her niece were met at the station by a lady in ft dog cart, and were driven off without his receiving a single farewell glance. tHe changed his clothes, and, finding he bad time for a bath before dinner time, be walked up the beach a half mile to a little core which had been a favorite haunt of his as long as he had known tbe place. It waa bidden behind a chain of sand dunes, and in the middle of the crescent shaped beach stood

■ smaU, unpainted bark house, with a pair <* steps leading up to it. t He unlocked the door, hooked the padlock In the staple, and went in. He hung his towel and bathing suit upon a nail, and sat down on a little shelf to undress. He had his shoes and stockings off, and was removing his collar and tie, when be heard voices outside in the direction of the hotel. He stood up on the seat, peeped through a little round hole that served as a window, and saw Beba with her aunt and the lady of the dog cart coming down the beach. It seemed unnecessary to notify them of his presence, considering the half tide condition of his attire ; and, thinking that they would pass on, he sat down again to wait till the beach was once more vacant. They walked Blowly towards him, but instead of continuing their walk, the c two ladies £at down upon the bath house steps to rest. A flimsy door alone separated him from them. It was now too late to make his presence known without a considerable sacrifice ot dignity, and he resigned himself to an un intentional eavesdropping, feeling something like a prie6t in his confessional box, " I don't know whether Stoughton was his first name or his last," said the younger lady; M but he was certainly very, audacious and amusing. I'd like to know who he was. Beba made up to him, but he didn't try to take advantage of it, except by telling her that absurd fairy tale so that I couid overhear it. But you can't talk to a man on the train when you don't know who he is, can you? "Was he good looking?" inquired th« Other. "Well, he was interesting—not exactly handsome." "I know I" exclaimed the lady of the dog cart. "It must have been Stoughton Webb. They are expecting him at the hotel, and all the girls are setting their cups for him." " Then I'm glad I didn't encourage him," said Miss Frayne. " He's probably spoiled. Men who can write almost always are." 41 Never mind," the other voice replied ; " they're usually so conceited that they're easily to handle," "I wouldn't stir a finger to attract him, but I'd rather knew Stoughton Webb than anyone else I know of. I've heard a lot about him from Fred. I hope he won't think I encouraged him—he'll have no use for me if he does. But isn't it time to go back to dinner? Come, Beba, wc must go now I"

As she rose, Miss Frayne cast a glance at the door of the bathhouse. " Look at that 1" she said to her companion. "These hotel people ore so careless anil thoughtless! Some one's left the key to this bath house here. I think I'll take it back and give it to the clerk in the ollice." She snapped the padlock in the hasp, took the key, and rejoined the others. Stoughton gazed at their retreating forms till they passed out of sight over the tops of the dunes. Then he dressed himself hurriedly, with a grim smile at the absurdity of the situation, and, bracing himself against the wall, kicked and pushed at the hinjje till the door broke loose, lie had started for dinner when a small girl Appeared in sight, twirling a key from a piece of Mi inp. It was Beba, and she came up to him breathless.

'" llullo !!' she said, and thcu she looked at the wretched door. " Did you see anybody come out of that bath' house?" she asked anxiously. "Yes,"said Stoiighton. "A man came out a few minutes ago, and he was very angry too."

" My Aunty May locked him in by mistake," said lteba, shocked at the incident. She just happened to think that perhaps there was somebody in there when she locked the door, and she sent me bad; with the key to let him out. I wonder who was it?"

"Well, it was some one who isn't' exactly handsome, and is rather conceited,' "said Stoughton. They walked, chattering paily, tnwunl.-? the hotel. Before they had rrirhid ilu> grounds fttougiitou usked: "Did you ever get your fairy slory finished, Kebu? " " Well, Aunty M:iy said that the poet man gave up trying to get the princess, and went off to a palace where he was united on by thirty-three ladies dressed in white duck." " That's not true ! Listen : this is how it happened. The really looked him up in a high castle xviih one window, and had him painted a bright pink all over, and cot out his tongue. Then a dragon came and blew hot air ilnough the key hole and roasted him. Yuu tell your Aunty May that, and she'll finish the story." They parted upon the h'.Hel front and Stoughton went up stairs todrc.-s foi dinner. When/ he came down he was shown to a table where sat his captors of the afternoon's adventure. They \\t>re visibly confused, but Stoughton seated himself coolly. lleba looked up after finishing her soup, and said, " My Aunty Way did goon with the story." Miss Frnme looked across at her, blushing, but was unable to prevent the child's prattle. Stoughton was in no mood to spare the lady. " What did she tell you ?' he asked. 41 Well, the prince—no, the poet, you know—did the second thing all right, for when the princess shut him up in the castle he flew out of the window and escaped, and she didn't know whether he was inside or not. Kow you go on and finish it up. It takes a dreadfully long time to tell a story." " Well, said .Stoughton seriously, without looking at the two ladies, "you know he had to give the princess something that she wanted more than anything else. That was the third thing." • Here Miss Frayne, with a dancing eye, interrupted the conversation. " I beg your pardon," sho said, "but would you mind pouring me a glass of water ? Thiß fish is so very salt." 41 What didhe give her?" Beba insisted. " It was a magic liquid that enabled her to speak to anybody she liked," said Stopghton, filling Miss Frayne's glass and passing it to her. "But really, your aunt must finish it now."

" Aunty May, what happened after that?" said Reba, impatiently. " Oh, the princess was disenchanted, I suppose, and she lived happily ever after. Now, if you're through with your dinner, you may go out on the lawn. Mr. Webb, you know my brother Fred, I think. I've heard him speak of you often. Let me introduce you >o Mrs. Smith." Bnt the third thing that which she really wanted more than anything else in the world—well, the princess dinn't get that for three weeks!

It was, as in all the most satisfactory Jui'v tales, a diamond solitaire ring.

The Jute of Commerce. This is the fibre obtained by meceration from the inner dark o( an annual which grhws to a height of from five to ten feet, with stalks as thick as ones fingeo. Formerly it was only U6ed for sacking, bat now it is largely used in tne manufacture of finer textile fabrics. It is one of the staples of Bengal, and a valuable plant it is;"th« leaves are used as a pot-herb; 'the stalks for fencing and fuel, the seed for oil-rake, ana the root for paper."

Mrs. Schoppen : " I want five pounds o| sugar, please." Grocer: " Yes'm ; anything else?" "No that's all; I'll take it with me if it isn't tot heavy a package." " Oh, it only weighs three ot four pounds ma'am-"