TOLD BY READERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

TOLD BY READERS

Original Stories under this "heading are invited for our Fortnightly Competition.

A CONTRIBUTION FROM FAIRIES. (Winning entry by Bathia H. K. Luttrell, "Jlaroera," Waimana, Bay of .Plenty; age 17.) It was in a fruit flish on the sideboard, it was green, hu(;'it wasn't lettuce or fruit or —what was it? It looked like a lacy cobweb, very loose mado by some old spider who'd got terribly tired of it. Somebody had got terribly tired of it, that is true, but cobwebs aren't green. . . Through one side a meat skewer was pushed, looking very inferior to a black knitting needlo with the point all bitten, which was through the opposite side. Of course, you've guessed, though I hadn't meant to keep you puzzl'ing. It was—it was going to be a patch. Growing late, and everything dark and quiet in tlio sitting room, Jennifer liked this hour between dusk and dark, although it was so full of mystery. The Japanese vases on the mantelpiece, with their narrow necks and extremely wide bodies, stood silently, like two statues, and, though however still you stood, or even pretended you weren't looking, you never saw them move or alter a fraction, yet you knew, felt strangely sure, that one said something to the other. Beside the vase they called Lou, on» short black paws, sat a little china cat, with yellow ochre eyei?, gazing and gazing at something in a black corncr. The minute the dark came round those eyes winked alive and in a picture on the wall some green and brown goblins were climbing up and .down, up and down an old grey tree.

Jennifer came in to look for her knit- / ting, but it wasn't where she had left it, and the cat's eyes looked so terrifying that she went away again- without it. A little later, in came Meg with soft steps. She switched on the light, and out went the cat's eyes. On the sideboard she found the funny little piece of green cobweb. She smiled to herself, the goblins grinned too —they smiled all the time. , Meg began a'; once to unravel the green web. Easy, easy it came; in a few minutes it wis just a long wavy piece of green wool. She began casting on. Through and over. The same thing again. She put oil twenty-four. She remembered hearing a piece of Jennifer's conversation the evening before. "Everybody's_ doing them, mummy—Wendy's Sunshine Patches. You're supposed to make one; they're green and yellaw arid blue. Some of them have got stripes in them. When Wendy gets thousands of them they sew them together and nntke rainbow rugs for all the little cold girls in Auckland." Rutliie, the little girl next door always read parts of • the "Budget" out to Jennifer and helped her to do the. cut-out on Page 1. Meg made quite a square in a very short time, sitting on a hassock with the goblins watching her. When Jennifer looked for the piece of crooked green knitting in the days'lc found a neat, firm, green square. First, she couldn't believe it. but it w'as exactly the same wool— everything. "Mummy, Meg," she cricd excitedly. "The fairies! You just ought to see what the fairies have done to my knitting!" "Ah, what have the little magic people been up to this time ?" asked Meg. They put threepenny bits in her shoes and sweets under her pillow, ab-eady. What next? Jennifer showed tlie sunshine patch. "I'll just pit it in the very same place," she whispered to Megi "And go out and close the door." Behind that closed door, only the goblins knew what really happened. Jennifer imagined fairy fingers■ cast aside the ill-matched pair of needles, and set to work with magic lingers. , Ruthie came over next Saturday as usual to read the "Star Twinkles." But

Most decidedly refreshing- was the batch of short stories which confronted the judges this week. Originality was shown in several entries, and it seemed that competitors made a concerted effort to break away from the type of story that has been submitted fairly consistently of late. Bathia Luttrell, Waimana,. age 17, succeeded in producing an entirely delightful tale. That the patch campaign, which is so much in the minds of Budgetites these days, was cleverly interwoven in the theme is a point which adds to its merit. In the story of Monica Naughton, Taumarunui, age 15, we learn of the adventures of a well-to-do girl who strays into the slum quarters of a large city; happily Lanes" are passing now and the prejudiced Pierres are giving place to enlightened Ellens. "Pal—the Drover's Friend," from the pen of Phyllis Hughes, Feilding, aged 16, was tinged with sadness, nevertheless it was good in that it showed the bond of comradeship which exists between some men and their animal friends. Joan Pain, New Lynn, age 17, was particularly energetic this week, submitting three separate entries for the one competition. Also highly commended i 3 the work of Iris Reeves, Green Bay, age 17; Joan Arres, Whakatane, and Stephen Maxwell, Auckland. Contributions by Unity Murray, Taumarunui, and Tim Gill, Sandringham, are to be published.

the Saturday after, .Tonnifor went racing down the green patfcli of lawn, and J through the hole in the fence she squeezed, after the paper hoy had dropped the "Star" on to the damp lawn. She thrust, the paper into Kuthic's hands. They opened the crisp now pages. In Wendy's Sunshine letter a piece (you may have seen it) read like this:—"The fairies have sent us a piece of fairy green knitting, one yard long. We think it was very kind of the fairies. Thank you." Jennifer's eyes sparkled. "Isn't if, isn't it—" said Ruthie. "Isn't it just like the little good people," said Meg, coming along and taking Jennifer's little'warm hand in hers.