THE BUDGET'S BIRTHDAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue LXI, 12 July 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BUDGET'S BIRTHDAY.

! ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS POSTPONED. SPECIAL PAGES LATE IN AUGUST. Dear Boys and Girls, — Poor Wendy is nearly in tear. When I first suggested to her that it would be impossible to hold our fourth birthday celebrations she was frightfully upset end created quite a scene. At first she inconsolable, but when i explained that we simply couldn't have a big competition and a birthday at the same time she quietened down a lot, and when I promised to hold the birthday later on she broke into a happy laugh. And so it was agreed that just as soon as this big competition was judged and over we will have our special pages to celebrate the fourth birthday of the Budget baby. As far as we can tell at the moment this will be about the end of August, so look for good things then, my readers. And now about the competition. Everyone seems very excited about the fireside puzzles, and already I have had scores of letters from young people saying how they enjoy working out puzzles before the cheery fire. In fact I have heard it said that in some cases the competitor has had the paper taken away from him whilst an older person attempts to solve a puzzle for his own satisfaction. Jf anything Is not quite clear in the conditions or instructions I will /s?f3 „g— Ibe quite pleased to answer queries in /*// I , the paper, but this must not be f VT/)//9Lj*. accepted by solvers as an excuse for / not thinking things out for them- MS*f^^ selves.

THE NEW SUIT. (By M. G. DOREHILL.) . Upon a leafy spray was perched a little elf. His name was Twinkle, and, as lie sat, he rumpled his hair in dismay, for his clothes were in rags. Scarce a moment before he had caught hie flimsy coat upon a thistle barb, and it had been torn to ribbons.' "And it is the ball to-night," he sighed, "the fairy queen's ball held in honour of her birthday." Twinkle knew that he could never go in a ragged coat, and how he could get a new one was a puzzle; fox he had fallen out with the fairy weaver who wove all the fairies' clothes for them, from rainbow "colours caught from sunset skies.

"I suppose I shall have to make myeelf a cape from a rose petal," he decided. "It will look 'very clumsy, but it will have to do," and with this thought he wandered off. But he had not.gone far when he espied> hidden in a little nook, a dainty suit of silver sheen.

"Oh," he cried, and gazed round-eyed. "How well that 6uit would do for me. I wonder whose it .is. It looks as if it had been thrown away."

Twinkle waited about for a bit, but as no one turned up to claim the suit, the elf decided to don it. It fitted him beautifully, and in high glee he danced off to the ball. Little did he know that it was a magic suit, and that it had made him quite invisible. What wa6 hie surprise when none of the fairies would notice him. And when he spoke they started with astonishment and gazed about them as if they couldn't see him. This made Twinkle very angry, for he thought they were doing it to tease him, and he went and sulked by himself beneath a large toadstool which had been laden with the fairy feast.

"It is. too bad of them, too bad," he nruttered to himself and nearly sobbed. Suddenly he heard a rustling and saw two ugly little gnomes steal out of the shadows and' crouch down so near to him that they almost touched him. To Twinkle's surprise they completely ignored his presence, just as the fairies had done, and began to talk as if he wasn't there.

Both gnomes were very excited, and Boon Twinkle gathered from their pers that they were planning to rob the dancing fairies of their sparkling jewels. "If only we hadn't lost the magic suit," eighed one. "Which, if I had donned, would'have made me quite invisible," sobbed the other. "You would have thought it would have been safe enough hidden in that little nook."

"And to think of the trouble we had to persuade that cross old magician to give it to us," moaned the first. "We will never get one again."« ' Twinkle sat up with a start. "Could this magic suit, which the gnomes had lost, possibly be the. one he had found and was wearing? And was that why no one appeared abl% to see him ? Of course it must be so.

The gnomes were speaking again. "Quick, we must form some, other plan of attack," said "one. "We.will try," sighed the other,/'but if only I had been invisible how'easy it would have all been." ,

"I think," said the first,."that we had better /stay under ' this toadstool and then, when the fairies come to supper,

The fairy queen gave a start. "Oh!" she said, "Oh!" and looked all round her. Where could the mysterious voice have come from?

Twinkle was enjoying himself. "Beware!" he ,eaid, in an awesome whisper, "beware!"

The fairy queen, now seriously alarmed, called a number of elves to her and told them what she had heard. "So," she said, "pray look under the toadstool and see if anything is there." Then the elves danced up to the laden table, with merry laughter and much talk as to the sweetness of the honey, so that the gnomes would not suspect what they had really come for, and take 'fright. Then suddenly they stooped and peeped beneath, and there, sure enough, were the bad' little pair, trying to hide behind the thick stem.

The elves dragged them out and to the queen. "Here they are, Your Majesty," they cried. "Two of them, just as you said."

The fairy queen looked at "them and frowned. "Oh gnomes," she said, "you were not invited to this party, and, anyway, guests do not usually lurk 'neath the supper table. I will not ask you why you did so, for I know. All I say is—go."

The gnomes went, but not far. For they were so pleased to escape that they determined to have another try at stealing something. And they lurked within the shadows, little guessing that the invisible elf had followed them.

Twinkle chuckled with glee when he saw the gnomes crouching iri the grass, for he loved a joke. Then silently he stole up ■to them and .sharply pulled one's ear and pinched the other's cheek. How those gnomes did yell. They were wild with fright and,- taking to their heels, they bolted into the night, nor did they stop for many a mile. Twinkle sat down in the grass and nearly split his sides wjth laughing. "And to think," he choked, "that it was all owing to their precious suit that I was able to play them such a trick. But the elf was now tired- of being invisible. "I would rather be ragged," he thought, so he took off the magic suit and donned his own torn things. Then once more he went to the ball.

The fairies gazed curiously at his bedraggled appearance, but • Twinkle went straight to the queen and told her the whole story and showed her the wonders of the magic suit. And all the fairies crowded round and each elf wanted to don it in turn.

The fairy queen was very pleased with Twinkle for-what he had done. "You have saved my ring," she said. Then she took her wand and waved it over the elf and at once all. his rags disappeared and he found he was clothed in a beautiful suit of woven moonshine.

Twinkle enjoyed the ball after all, In fact, so did all the fairies.

we will dash out and seize all the trinkets we can."

"And don't forget," said the second, "that we must have the queen's rings, at all costs."

Twinkle rose hastily. He must warn the fairies of tha plot, and that quickly. So he slipped out from beneath the toadstool and made his way tMough the dancing throng to the fairy queen. "Your Majesty," he whispered, "Your Majesty, there are two gnomes platting beneath the supper table, to steal your ring."