SIMPLE STORIES
THE MOB HE school children were playing, some in groups, some singly. One neatly-dressed boy was happily absorbed in being an engine, another solitary stood aimless and forlorn. An oddity this one, with a yellow face and fuzzy negroid hair and strangely ill-fitting clothes. From my seat in the porch of the dental clinic I pitied his loneliness. Suddenly the wistful face lit up and he pointed an excited finger: "Aw, look at yer shoes!" Locomotive stopped, and looked down. Fuzzyhead hailed some girls, "Look at his shoes! They’re girls’ shoes!" The girls giggled, a ring formed in a twinkling and boys and girls circled round with pointing fingers, chanting "Girlee! Girlee!" Fuzzy was transformed. He led them, he stamped and chanted rhythmically, an impish glee in his face-was it a harking back to his ancestral tribal dances? The victim looked bothered, lunged, and with a sudden punch at Fuzzy’s middle, shouted furiously "Not a girl!" The ring stared, wavered, and broke up. Fuzzy looked confused, Loco abashed. The others strolled away, bored; Loco resumed his chugging. Fuzzy stood once more forlorn. The mob had gone, its mood changed. These were five-year-olds.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19430108.2.18
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 185, 8 January 1943, Page 9
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194SIMPLE STORIES New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 185, 8 January 1943, Page 9
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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