FOR THE CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 22

FOR THE CHILDREN.

DORIS' DREAM. Anyone peeping through the curtains of that dainty room would have known it was Christmas Eve in England. Tabby, Doris' cat, blinked sleepily at the dying embers of a log fire, and holly j hung about the pretty text pictures ill : huge bunchea. ' Tinkle, tinkle came the bells. Xearer j and nearer they sounded. Doris sat up j in affright. Whatever could it be? She! tip-toed to tlie window and looked! between the curtains. There, outride on the lawn, was a tiny ! deer, drawin" a sleigh, with the daintiest i wee fairy you ever 6aw sitting inside it! | "Oh!" gasped Doris. "Come on, my] dear," said the fairy, in a silvery voice,! "it is so nice riding up the hills to-night." I "B-b-but, how can I?" asked Doris, pointing miserably to h< r skimpy nightdress. Then a wonderrul thing happened. A tiny fur coat clung lovingly around her! "Out you come, Dorrie," said the fairy., helping Doris to jump out of the win-low. "Meow!" said a piteous voice from the fireplace. "Come down, Tabby," said the fairy, smiling. So Tabby snuggled in to his mistress, and, wrapped cosily in furs, the little party drove off. How pretty everything looked in the moonlight! Flying past silvery lakes, crawling up snow-wrapped mountains, and scurrying down the other sides, skidding over flat fields, and dipping down into valleys of glistening frost. Stars overhead glittered bravely, and .Tack Frost did his best to beat them by being so sharp! "Halt:"' commanded a funny little man, stepping out from nowhere at all. The tiny (leer stopped in surprise, and began to look in. the elf's pockets for something to eat. "Marina, what means this?" gravely asked the fairy. "Your majesty," began the elf. . . . Then Doris was riding with the Fairy Queen! . . . ". . . . A party of revellers from Gnomeland have come to cause mischief to you and your carriage, i warn you— drive back, not forward!' , "P.ctrone, manna, I shall reward thee for this. Give in to a party of tipsy gnomes? Never!" Manna vanished as lie had come, and the deer trotted off, indignant at the interruption. "We are a party of gnomes, ha! ha! AYe've come to rk'ht our wrongs, ha: ha!" AVeird voices sang that in the distance. Doris was terriiied. "Dorrie. don't be afraid," said the Queen kindly, "I am near you." So Doris, listening to the on-coming tramp of tiny feet, and the weird flashing of torches, didn't feel frightened in the least. "Well, what is it you wish?" rapped out the Queen to four impudent gnomes, trying to stoop the drer. •'We want you to marry our King!" they sai.l, and sprang into the sleigh. With a growl Tabby changed into a tiger, and crumpled them up in a trice. "Cirrr " he said, smacking his lips, as if ready for some more. '•fill! Queen! We have wronged you!" said the rest of the party, grovelling on tho ground for mercy. "Bah!" said the Queen, contemptuously, and then the deer tripped off, across the snow-clad hills, until it stopped at the entrance to a care, with large lanterns hanging on trees and lighting up the earth for miles around. In stepped the Queen and Doris into a world of toys and holly. "Ah! Here you are," said a bluff old gentleman, gripping Doris' hands in his own—sur-h a tall, broad-shouldered gentleman, with such p. kind face and smile! "Well. Doris, how did you enjoy your ride!" "It was lovely, thank you," answered Doris, smiling. Doris had plenty of time to look round the wonderful stock of dolls nnd Teddy bears. Soon they were both in another sleigh, with Tabby reduced to his normal size.

"Hurrah!" cried Doris, as she curled herself into the pillows. "It's been so jolly! We shan't tell a soul, dear Tabby, "We shan't tell a soul, dear Tabby, 'cos Tommy would laugu and jeer. And — and —-it ■was nice, wasn't it?" Tabby licked his lips and screwed his tail more lightly round his body. THE NEEDLE'S STORY. "Well!" said the needle, as he sat down suddenly beside the pin. "That's that. Tliev say that 'a biitch in time saves nine'—and if this really is the case—l'm sure I must have saved some thousands. However!" he went.On, looking sideways at his friend As I was saying when interrupted to do that little iol>, D .rm sure you will agree that I'm as fine a fellow as yourself when you have heard the story of my life. "Start away," cried the pin. "1 should certainly like to hear it, but will reserveWsment until I have heard the story. ''Well to begin with," said the needle, "I was like you, part of a coil of wire, and one day was taken with a lot of other coils, to a huge building (1 believe it was called a factory), at a place called Redditch. There we w*re unwound, the best pieces of wire (of which, needless to say I was one), were carefully selected, and cut into eight-foot lengths. This was done by winding the wire into coils of lb feet circumference, and then dividing them with powerful cutting shears. It was at this btage that my career nearly came to an end. for those shears almost chopped mc in two, and I only just managed to slip through before their blades met in the body of my unfortunate next door neighbour. . . , n, "'After this, we were cut into lengtns for two needles. The pieces were then collected into bundles of about GOOO, and BlMitlv softened by firing, then laid upon an iron bench and made perfectly Straight. We were then taken to a grindand sharpened at both ends, which cheered mc up immensely, for I always think that one feels so much more fitted to face the dangers of life with a nice sharp point for self-defence. After being flattened in the centre, two holes were pierced through the flat part—side by side with a cross-cut between—and we were broken in two at the cross-cut, thus forming two needles with flat heads. "I did not realise that my own head was flat until I heard the needle behind mc laughing. I turned round, and giving him a sharp prick, asked him what he was laughing at. 'Laughing- at,' he repeated, 'Why, if you could only see your own head, you'd laugh too!' And he burst into* another poal of merriment. Then I saw how very funny he looked himself, and at that moment all the other needles saw the joke, and we began poking fun at one another. Our mirth was soon at an end, however. We were all gathered up, a piece of thin wire threaded through our eyes and we were placed in a vice and held so tightly that I thought that I should have no breath Heft in my body, and our poor heads were filed at the top and sides. "After this we were again made hot, and covered all over in oil—the smell of which made mc foel horribly ill—and to make matters worse, the oil had to be burnt off. Just think how brittle and bad tempered we were by this time—and how thankful to find ourselves rolled in nice cool sand and emery powder inside a piece of canvas. It was indeed bliss —but, alas, far too short! We suddenly found ourselves moving faster and faster, until we were rolling backwards and forwards at such a rate that our teeth chattered and our poor little bodies were stiff and Bore. This went on for quite ten hours, and when at last we were taken out, we found to our great surprise and joy that we were all bright and silvery-looking, instead of black and dirty. Naturally, we were proud of our beautiful appearance, and were busy complimenting one another, when again we were thrust into pieces of canvas, mixed with a nasty paste of putty, powder, and oil, fastened up. and placed again between those dreadful slabs, and were rolled backwards and forwards for another four hours. Oh. it was frightful, my dear fellow." cried the needle, wiping a tear from his solitary eye. "You must excuse my emotion, but really, I can hardly bear to think of it." "It must have been a terrible experience," said the pin kindly; "but tell mc. my friend, was that the end of tout sufferings?" "Very nearly," replied" the noodle, with a sigh. "The only thing that remained to be done was the drilling

and polishing of our eyes; that waa soon over, and we weie all stuck into little black paper packets to be sold." "But my friend.' , lie added proudly, "we were not sold for 50 a penny, but for the handsome price of S for .'ld.' , "AVell done." cried the pin. grasping the needle's hand. "I am indeed proud to possess such an experienced and noble friend, and there is nothing left for mc to say- hilt that you are every hit as fine, if ii<ir finer than my very excellent self." THE OLDEST LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD. Gifts are word* that men have epoken sim-e the world began, propitiation being their fir>t meaning—as wi t .., Cain and. Abel—and their hist: serin- that yesterday 1 bought an umbrella for "my charwoman that plainly says, •■Don't leave mc: Don't ~ive rif ice-"' (writes Cecilia Hill, in the "Daily Chronicle"). And I pushed :in 1 hustled at a coua< (T all the moiiiinir buying presents according to a list. "Something nice for Uncle John" (because I forfrot all about him last Ohrstmas), and "!>orae little thin;: for Cousin I.ouie" (because I spilt ink on her drawiucroom carpetl. You might call this the trade vocabulary oi Giving —the vulgar tonjrue. But gifts in olden days were stately and ornate, a panejryric to the giver, 60 to say, as when the Queen of Sheba, hroupht to Solomon "one hundred and twenty talents of gold; and of spices

great abundance; and prerione stones." Or when the Wise Men in their long, slow journey, following the Star to Bethlehem, hronght frold and frankincense and myrrh that spoke of sor>cr and more humble thoughts. (The Shepherds, to br Mire, brought nothing, fur they came down from the hills in a great hurry.) Or, n;:nin, there was an attractive dare-devil irony in the (lift of tennis balls edit to Kin? Harry \>y the Dauphin. They cost him de.ir. and gave ua Ajrincourt. So men have alwar« epoken in ,ir:ft3, and nlwnyfl will: for it'io laiumase translates it-eit iiilo every tongue, and needs no learning. Rut when yon come to think of it, children accept (bristnins Irro< and sloikinas, and pvi n Katln-v rhri*tnias, witliOUl mudi purpri-p; smilingly, hut as theirs by riaht divine: and .-o they are! \Vhen\is pifts make i-iiiMrou of prown people, seeing that the ulilrM nnd tie jiroihie.-t lniu-t «;iy "Thank joiil' , ■WHEN NATURE FELL ASLEEP. and n.srs pink nnfl wild. Which n-aii'li'iPil "<■■■ rim liedgos by the hiishrued win.l |.«jr'ri.-i]. Thi'i-e were ferns nil Kn>-n with rre.^hneps, there w-vr li-nvi s nf c..VU.n stnln. And plnwwnrniii ,}■■<;-[ ln-re and lli.-i.- nlong As if' tin- twllijiht angel's suns •''""S the KlMi-ii wi-M : An<l fr"ni :',.■ f.ir-.ff .-l:j- .:,::.• :i ilruvri} humm!n= fl «, Whlih ni-ti-cl ;.- a lu'.laliy—and Nature fell - TAX PI'.AG. " SOMETHING." Thai ■■'-■;.■. us .| : ':'. .".-!- ii ihh:im. : "•S.inii-iii'u , ." 'nit T-.'! .]•■■.: ,nn.T -vlTit - "HoiiU'liilliij" ni ■• •,:!■! p'.i-.m'.i ;ii-! f.it. "Snilli'l :.;ur" t'.at :lll"l '.;> -I!. '• . '■■•'. uiii-rhins" t!mt ■■■in"l '■■■■ :: .-■ i' 'liii' s'nwiest li:t!.> 1.-i ir Seat in us straight fr -ii f." sKii s As ii loTtly Vva earprise. Be able to po out en.l ;>!i) T . Ajid havp so.-De f:n trtrh you and mc. I Oil: liinv happy we iriU ju.