CLOUD THAT COLLAPSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 271, 15 November 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

CLOUD THAT COLLAPSED.

Twinkle-Toe had been dusting the stars. There were so many stars to dust—big ones and little ones and medium-sized ones. And poor little Twinkle-Toe was terribly tired. He had caught himself yawning several times. So he/ tucked his feather broom under one arm and waited until a fluffy little white cloud came sailing by. Then, stepping lightly on to it, he curled himself up in its downy softness and fell into a peaceful sleep. When he awoke the stars liad all disappeared. And how cold it had grown! And what ever had happened to his cloud? It had been such a soft, fluffy little thing last night. Now it was hard and stiff and frozen. Twinkle-Toe put down his hand and broke off a bit of it. Yes, you could break off a bit of it, now! TwinkleToe shook his head in puzzlement. He could not understand it at all. And- then, suddenly, the most dreadful thing happened! The cloud fell to pieces. Yes—just like that! Twinkle-Toe was so startled that he had no time to spread his wings. And down, down, down he fell toward the big, cold earth. "Oh, dear!" gasped the poor little elf. He was falling so fast now that 'he could not stop himself. And then he heard human voices— and his heart began to jump. "Look! It's snowing!" one of the humans said. "What thick flakes!" ore of the humans was saying—he wa? only very small. "See how they are piling up. We shall be able to make snowballs." Twinkle-Toe knew what snowballs were. He had seen the humans playing with them many a time. He was just picking himself from the ground where he had landed with a bump, when he was gathered Up in a handful of snow and pressed and pressed and pressed. "I am being made into a snowball!" he gasped. "Oh, dear! And now someone will throw me.'* The words were hardly out of his mouth before he felt a he was travelling through the air at a tremendous rate. "Where ever shall I land?" he was wondering miserably, when—bump!— the snowball hit the bark of a tree arid shattered to fragments. And TwinkleToe was out in the sunshine again, feeling rather shaken and terribly cold, but —free! And as he spread* hi? wings and sped swiftly back to Fairyland he made a solemn vow never, never to fall asleep on a cloud again.'*