THE ILL WIND: A Simple Story

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Unnumbered Page

THE ILL WIND: A Simple Story

T was the winter of 1933, and all Miss Wilkes’s friends were scurrying to the draper’s to buy brown and orange wool. "I might as well be in the fashion for once," thought Miss Wilykes, so she asked for eight skeins of brown and one skein of orange, and she knitted herself such a nice warm jumper in the brown wool with an orange collar and cuffs. Then she thought it would be a good idea to have a hat to match, so she crocheted a@ very nice orange tam and sewed a large brown pom-pom on top. And to complete the outfit her sister-in-law knitted her’ a lovely warm orange and brown scarf for Christmas. The next winter on opening the moth-proof chest in which she kept her winter woollies, Miss Wilkes was horrified to find that there were a number of holes in her nice brown and orange jumper. However, her tam and scarf were as good as new and she was able to get some more wool and knit another jumper to match, ‘THE following winter Miss Wilkes noticed with regret that her beautifully crocheted tam seemed a trifle too large for the current fashions in headgear. So she stuffed it and made it into a nice cushion for the car. And she got some more wool and made herself a little Dutch bonnet affair. The next winter most people seemed to have stopped wearing brown and orange, and Miss Wilkes herself was getting rather tired of it. But her jumper and bonnet were still very good and she couldn’t bear the thought of throwing them away. The nice scarf, however, was |

rather listless-looking, as Miss Wilkes managed to get some more wool to knit another scarf to complete her set. BY 1939 Miss Wilkes was grieved to find that her jumper was wearing thin at the elbows. So she got three skeins of the brown wool from the local draper and with some orange she had over from the scarf she knitted new sleeves. And there was her set again as good as new. It was 1941 when Miss Wilkes decided that instead of spending her holi-

days with her sister-in-law she would go up to Auckland to see her second cousin’s new baby. She had a lovely time in Auckland. Her relations took her everywhere, but, unfortunately, when she was going across to Devonport in the ferry boat one day she got so excited that she lent overboard and her little Dutch bonnet fell off her head and sank beneath the waves. WHEN Miss Wilkes got back home the first thing she did after unpacking her clothes was to dart over to the draper’s to get some more brown and

orange wool to knit herself a snood to go with the brown and orange jersey and the scarf, which still had quite a lot of wear in them. But when she got to the draper’s and asked for some brown and orange wool the draper just looked at her blankly. So she rushed straight across the road to the milliner’s and bought herself a nice blue felt hat with a feather in it which she’d had her eye on since 1938. And then she went straight home and took the brown and orange jersey (which still had quite a lot of wear in it) and unravelled it and knitted it into a winter jacket for her sister’s Pomeranian, an animal which she did not like very much.