ADVENTURES OF BUD AND PETAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17976, 22 March 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

ADVENTURES OF BUD AND PETAL.

B u “. and his twin sister Petal were tired'—they had been working so hard helping their father and mother store Flower Fragrance. All the flowers as i)iey die are gathered by fairies and their perfume blended making the wonderful Flower Fragrance. The twins’ father and mother are in charge of the Perfume Department of Fairyland. Flower Fragrance is the most precious of all the magic perfumes. When it is made the fairies store it away in great Opal jars and it is used to perfume the air on summer evenings and in the dawn; you have all smelled it in the air in Springtime. Before her marriage . the twins’ mother. had been lady-in-waiting to the Fairy Queen and one day when the wcked elves tried to steal the Queen’s magic wand the lady-in-wait-ing had rescued it from them. The queen was so grateful that she promised t,o reward the good fairy when the time came. She kept her promise when the twins were horn, she said that whenever the children grew tired or weary a fairy would come and take them on a trip to the Land of-New Things. Fairies don’t tire as as we do—they don’t, have to go to bed every night—on an average Bud and Petal went to bed once in every three months, they they really were tired. This day they were very tired and wear so they both climbed into a huge Sunflower to have a rest and in a few minutes they heard the whirr of wings and on looldng up they saw Fairy Knowail landing from his new Cloudlet aeroplane. Fain' Knowail was King Oberon’s confidential secretary! and he had come to take Bud

(By “Calliope.”)

and Petal for a trip in his aeroplane. The twins slipped off their flower couch and ran to meet him. ■ “ Hello kiddies ” he cried, “ how do you like the-new aeroplane that King Oberon gave me; better than riding a Dragonfly, eh?" “ Oh,” gasped the twins. “It is wonderful." Indeed it was, you know until aeroplanes came into fashion the fairies had ridden dragonflies when they went on Jong journeys because 1 'their wings grew so tired especially if they had big stretches of water to cross. Knowall’s aeroplane was called the “ Flying Cloud ” and it was made of hundreds of liny white clouds. “ 1 know you are tired so I have come to lake you for a trip in my aeroplane,” said Knowail. “Yes,” said Bud. “ IWe have helped father and mother make and store one hundred jars of Flower Fragrance since our last trip with you. “ Well, hop in,” said Knowail, “ and don’t look down or you will he airsick.” “ Oh, this is lovely,”, said Petal, “how easily we float along; not like old Draggle, ’” —Draggic was her pet name for the dragonfly. I-Ic was nice when he was in a good temper but wh.en ho got cross he was so mean he used to go so slow and then again lie would race among the trees and no matter how we cried out to him to be careful he still rushed on. Where arc you taking us to-day?” asked Bud.

“ Well, the Fairy Queen wants some Star Crystal lamps,” said Knowail. “ You know she has always wanted some for her old ballroom and now that the new palace is in course of

erection she is determined to have them. You have never been to Starland, se we might go to-day to get the lamps.” “Lovely, lovely," cried the twins in chorus. On flew the plane and soon there appeared ahead a soft amethyst glow. “ What is that glow I see?” asked Petal. “That,” said Knowail, “is the reflection in the sky of the lights of Rainbow city. We pass through the city on our way to Starland. The most wonderful think to be seen there is the Rainbow Bridge at one end of which is the everlasting Pot of Gold. No mortal has ever reached the end of the bridge, but we fairies have the right to come and go at will.” “What is in the Pot of Gold?" asked Bud. “Men have somehow gotten the idea that it is full of -gold, hut that; is not the case,” said Knowail. “ The pot itself is made of gold and in it is the fulfilment of mans’ ideals, his ambitions, it is his goal.”' “ Why has no mortal ever found the Pot of Gold?” asked Petal. “ I will tell you how it is that mortals always fail," said Fairy Knowail. “A man wants to paint pictures, he paints them—'many of them-—big and small, then his one great wish is to paint one that will make him famous, that wish is his goal, his Pot of Gold. He works and works and at last he paints a great picture and becomes famous, but then he gets a still greater ideal—he is not content with what he has done and the new ideal becom&s his Pot of Gold, it takes the place of the old goal, and so you see how the Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow eludes the grasp of man.” “ I never heard that before,” said Bud. The amethyst glow had grown nearer, Knowail flew slower and lower

till the twins knew that he was going to land. They were very pleased because they had been thinking that if they flew over the city they would not have much chance of seeing the wonderful things they had heard were to be seen there. They would also be glad to get out and stretch their cramped wings and legs, they had been flying since noon and it was now late evening. The Plying. Club landed on a- great plain, Knowail helped the twins to alight. “-Oh, how strange it all is," -they cried as they gazed around them. Next week I will tell, you of the strange and wonderful things that Bud and Petal saw in Rainbow city.