CASTLES IN THE SAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

CASTLES IN THE SAND.

(By Elsa Plavell, P.O. Box 313, Hawera, age 16.) "Do come and make a sand castle," said small Betty, in a pleading voice. "Oli, all right," I replied, shutting nay book with a sigh. One cannot very well refuse the request of a guest, though she does happen to be but a small cousin. "Lend me your spade and I'll dig the moat while you p"ie the sand lip in the middle. See, I'm coming to water norf. It is going to be a lovely big castle, isn't it" "00. yes! And here's a place to put a bridge. Look, I've made one. Can we make a garden after with seaweed, and those tussocky things for trees?" "Yes, if you like. I know, Betty; shall we say this is the fairy queen's castle?" I suggested. "Oh, lovely!" was the joyful answer. "Very well; but we shall have to name the fairies, you know. Let's have a queen and a king and three princesses, shall we? You can name them." Betty was about six, and names, I suppose, were all the same to her. She never thought that fairie might not have the kind of na:nes we mortals have, and the ones she gave them were not the kind of names usually found in fairy tales, except for one. * "Mm," she began thoughtfully. "They can be Mary, and Margaret—she can be the queen —and Ann, and —and Tinkerbell." "And the king?" I prompted. „ "O-oh," she said doubtfully; then added, with a sudden inspiration, "St Joseph." "This was certainly more original than the others. "Very well," 1 said calmly. After all, I've been told, although 1 don't remember it myself, that when I was much smaller I used to make up stories about a certain Fairy Barker. So I didn't laugh. The castle was soon finished. It was all that a castle should be, with its moat and bridges, battlements and towel's, and a banner consisting of a handkerchief tied to a stick. Betty was delighted. "Now, if you like, I'll tell you a story about the fairies," I offered. "Oh, please," was th. eager reply. "Then come and sit on this rock, where we can look at the sea. Now, once upon a time, the little princesses were walking on the beach in front of the castle. It wa6 at sunset —" "Was it a sunset liko the other night, j when the sun melted into all that gold?" "I expect so, because—" "How did the sun get together again, after it had melted," "Oh —er—I expect some of the fairies gathered the gold together and made it into a. ball again," I said. "Anyway, it was sunset, and there was a path of gold lying across the sea, and the fairies were looking out across it ■when a mermaid came floating along on a seahorse." | "What's a sea-horse?" "It's a kind of fleh that looks like a horse' 3 head with just a tail and no body. Well, the mermaid rode right up the golden path an * stepped on to the sand. Then she said: 'Hullo, Mary and Ann and Tinkerbell—'" "Did she know them before?" "No, she'd never seen them till then, but fairy-tale folk always know each other's names. The fairies hadn't seen a mermaid before, but they'd heard about them from their mother and father, so they knew it was a piermaid. Well, she said, 'My name's Pawa, and my father, King Nentune, sent me to ask if you would like to visit his palace.'" "A pawa's a shell, isn't it?" . "Yes." "Then how could it be anyone's name" "Oh, she was a mermaid, you see, and so she was called that because shells are sea-ish things. "Of course, when they heard this, the fairies were ever so excited, and they ran to ask their mother, so she said yes, they could go, hut if they waited she and the king would go too, so they waited, and then they ali set out together." "Was the palace under the sea, and how could tlicy breathe if it was?" ' "I'm coming to that, if you'll only listen! Yes, the palace was under the sea, and the mermaid could breathe under the sea because she lived in it, and could breathe like a lisli. The fairies had to make a magic spell before they went under the water. There was a wonderful carriage of pearl shell waiting to take them to the palace, drawn by six sea-horse®." "How lovely!" ■- "Yes, it was. And the palace was the most wonderful ever seen. It was built of diamonds—you know what they are 1" "No." "Yea you da—those shiny things in mummy's ring." "Oh, yes." "Well, it was made of those, and inside it was most wonderful. King Neptune was a very rich king, you know, for he had lots »nd lots of treasures, because there are all sorts of precious things at the bottom of the sea. The

king himself sat on a throne of pure gold, like the sunset the other night, which was studded with rubies—they're like diamonds, only red —and emeralds (they're green), and sapphires (they're blue). And instead of electric lights they had huge opals hanging from the roofs. Opals are lovely, you know, greeny-blue like the sea, with fire flashing inside." "Do they have them on the land?" "Oh, of course', or how do you think I'd know what they were like? Only they don't have such big ones as King Neptune." "Were there any other little mermaid princesses besides Pawa?" "Yes, there were. You can name them, if you like. There were two, and a queen, and a little prince, too." "The queen > can be Elizabeth, and the princesses Helen and Molly." "And the prince?" I queried. "Bill," was the prompt answer. I choked. "TOiat's wrong?" asked Betty, eyes wide with innocent concern. "I—l must have swallowed something," I gasped. "Better now. I'll go on."' "It was tea time when the fairies arrived, and tliey went to a huge dining room, where they eat on sea-grass ohairs with seaweed cushions. The carpets and curtains were syaweed, too. And they had all sorts of funny things to eat — sea eggs, and jelly fish, and other little fish, too, and cakes of seaweed." "Then their curtains were made of the same stuff as their cakes ? How funny!" "Oh, they were different kinds of weed. And the servants who gave out the food were octopuses, and who very useful, because they have eight tentacles (they're kind of leg things) and they could use six for hands while they walked on two." "Didn't they bite, or anything?" "No, because they had to obey King Neptune, and he had told them they

weren't too. There were even sharks as servants, and they never hurt, anyone." "I would have been .frightened, though, if I'd been there, wouldn't you?" "I daresay. Well, the things for tea were nicer tluui the fairies had thought' they would be. And after tea the fairy king and queen went with King Neptune and Queen Elizabeth to see their garden, and Mary, Ann and Tinkerbell went to sec the mermaid princesses' own little garden, while Prince Bill went for a ride 011 a seahorse. Yon should have seen the gardens under the sea! There were all sorts of lovely seaweeds (they aren't really weeds, you know), and there were sea-anemones and all sorts of other beautiful things like flowers, that were really animals, kind of growing 011 the bottom of the sea. And the mermaids gave the fairies all sorts of lovely things to take back with them— jeweis and beautiful shells, and they promised to comc and see King Joseph's JJ "Saint Joseph's," said Betty reproachfully. "Oh, yes, King St. Joseph's palace one day, and the fairies promised to show them all the lovely flowers th'at grow on this earth, because they had never seen them, you know. And the last thing the fairies saw as they went up to their castle was Pawa waving her hand to them as the pearl-shell carriage went down a track of moonlight and disappeared into the sea. "There," I ended. "Did you like my story ?" "Oh, yes," small Jsetty replied, rewarding me with a bright look; "but —but how did the fairies manage to breathe under the water? Did they have to grow gills?" I don't think I shall try to tell Betty fairy tales again; she has far too practical a mind.