Back at School

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23269, 11 February 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

Back at School

DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS,— ONCE again the school term is in full swing and I really believe most of you were pleased to see the familiar form-rooms with their desks and blackboards and I know you were all just delighted to see your form-mates. What fun it is recounting all the holiday adventures to friends you have not seen for so many weeks. Oh, school is a very merry, laughing p ace jus after the summer holidays! < The other day I was sitting by a window that looks down the front drive and I saw such a number of blackbirds darting in and out of the shrubs on the lawn and hopping along the drive. It was very fascinating wrtelung them. A light rain had just ceased and the ground was nil damp and squishy, and I opened the window very gently I could hear (the gra..s ticking in the strange way it does when it is wet. After a while I began to wonder if it really was the grass ticking or something else, for a little hen blackbird was listening too, with her wee head on one side and her beady eyes fastened on to the close-clipped grass. Suddenly, a hop, a yellow beak disappearing into the moist ground and a long, fat worm was slowly pulled from its earthy home. Little Miss Blackbird thought she had found a perfect meal, but from the other side of the drive came a big greedy-looking cock with his eyes gleaming wickedly. He pecked viciously at the hen. She obediently dropped the worm, gazing up with a hurt expression on her face. With a screech of rage the old.cock chased her away into a bush and then rushed back to his meal, but he was greeted with disappointment, for old Mr. Wriggly Worm had slid silently but . J epeedily back into the soft earth. V*'/ *lfi IJ Secretly I felt pleased the old cock I j 9 had lost his dinner, for he had really L 4 H K <C7' / * treated the little hen very badly. Ever so much love and happiness to | l^*-' you all, from - ■««**