OUT OF THE MOON.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

OUT OF THE MOON.

(By M. G. DOREHILL.)

*Twas witch-time and tiny forms moved to and fro in the misty moonlight. Dainty, light a s air, they danced in a ring. It was a fairy ball. Then, through the still night, a little man fell out of the sky like a stone, and landed on his back with a yell which made the startled fairies leap away. A queer little dwarf he was, old and Wizened. As he lay, his eyes stared upwards into the starlit heavens, and, through the veil of a billowy cloud, he saw the moon. He rubbed his eyes in puzzlement. "Why," he muttered, "that's the moon and I've fallen off." He had been the Man in the Moon, you •ee, but he had leant over too far and lad fallen off; and now here he was on the earth, very much bruised and out of temper. Then, as he gazed at the moon, he shook his fist at it in anger. "How dare you," he shrieked, "shine as if there tvas nothing the matter, though I am not there and never will be again as far as I can see; for although it was easy «nough to fall down, I don't know how to fall up again." As the Man in the Moon sat sulking, lie suddenly became conscious that there were moving forms about him and the air was filled with tiny voices. "Oh, oh, oh! What is this, in our fairy ring? Get it out quick. Oh, what •hall we do?" "I am the Man out of the Moon," •napped the intruder in a huff. The little forms danced closer, elves and fairies<—spirits of the night, and, gesturing, whispered, "The Man out of the Moon! The man that waa in moon. Isn't it strange? What's he doing here in our ring?" "I fell," said the dwarf, crossly, "and I want to go home."

"Not yet," said the fairies. "Stay with Os a while and see us dance." "I don't want to," snapped the cross little man. "I don't believe in fairies— they are no use." "We are no use!" the fairies echoed, •nd the night was filled with tinkling laughter. Then, as the dwarf sulked ■within their ring, the fairies joined hands and danced round him. Faster they "Went and ever faster, whirl, whirl, whirling; flashes of sparkling dresses and glimpses of golden hair. The dwarf sat watching, hunched and eilent, but the swift movements made him sleepy, and soon he began to snore. The fairies sprang apart, their dance abruptly ended. "How very rude," they •aid. "He doesn't believe in us! He thinks We are no use."

Then another said, "Let's slip away »nd leave him to his fate." "Yes, let's," the other cried, "snoring In our ring!" So they crept away and the dwarf clept on and on, till at last the sunshine woke him and he rubbed his eyes, dazed and dazzled with the light. Slowly lie remembered all. "It's day," he mumbled, "it's day, and the moon has sot ■without me." In a rage he got up, then, trembling, eat down again, afraid to move lest he should get lost. Suddenly shouts fell upon his startled cars and two boys came scampering through the trees to pause with mouths agape as they saw the funny, wrinkled dwarf. ~ j ii. "Don't stare at me, snapped the ■trange little figure. "I am the Man in the Moon." "The Man in the Moon, the boys yelled and exploded with laughter, then chanted: —

••The Man in the Moon came down too soon and asked his way to Norwich. Ihe Man in the South, he burnt his mouth by eating cold plum porridge. The dwarf got up in a fury. "Asked lis way to Norwich, indeed. Who would ■want to go to Norwich? Can you tell me the way to the Moon ?" he added hopefully.

But only howls of mirth greeted this speech. "He wants to know the way t< the moon. Oh, he is much too pood r treat to be missed, we must fetch thi others to see him." And the boys scampered off. "Oh, dear!" said the Man out of the Moon, when he was alone again. "What a dreadful place this is. I must hide at all costs, before those boys come back." He looked about him. "Oh, if only 1 could fly," he moaned, gazing upwards through the trees. Then shouts in the distance caused him, isi sudden panic, to scramble up the nearest tree, where, hidden among the leaves, he watched the disappointed boys search for him below. "Alas," he sighed, "how I wish I had been nice to the fairies and then, perhaps, they would have helped me get home again." \ The bovs wandered away and, after a while, it grew dark once more, and from a bank of clouds a silver orb peeped through.

"The moon! the moon!" the wretched ittle man gave a cry of joy and streccuf. I out his arms to it. Then suddenly he heard tinkling music beiou and. looking down, saw the fairies were back again, dancing in their ring. "Dear fairies," lie cried, "do help me, please. I am sorry I was so bad tempered last night. Oh, help me get back to the moon." The dancing fairies paused. "Where are you?" cried a tiny voice. "Up a tree," moaned the wretched dwarf. The fairies laughed. It was so funny to think of the Man in the Moon up a tree, but they said, "We will help you, oh Man out of the Moon." And a fairy stepped forward and touched one of the moon's rays with her wand and, all at once, it changed into a solid silver ladder running from the earth to the moon. Oh, how pleased the dwarf was, and he thanked the fairies over and over again for their kindness, then turned and scampered up the ladder as fast as ever his legs would carry him, till he looked only like a little black speck. The Man in the Moon has never again said that "fairies are no use."