LINDA AND FANCY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 122, 25 May 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

LINDA AND FANCY.

(By Anna Chrislcnscn, 255, Botanical Road, Palmerston North ; age 17.) The wind was an- elf and a girl tonight. It played in Linda's hair and shook its skirts in rustles and gusts around her. Linda was an elf and a girl, too, and skipped lightly, so lightly along. in slippered feet of red. Playfully the wind would run ahead of Linda, as fast as it could along the footpath, and laughing Linda's feet would follow. "I love you to-night, 0 wind," breathed Linda. "You are a playmate of fancy." The Lamp-post Ladies stood straight along either side of the road. "They are so tall and grey and dignified," Linda thought. "They drop their head* like snowdrops, and flower bright guidance along the road." The moths loved the Lamp-post Ladies, too. They fluttered frightened from the darkness, and were i so pleased when they reached a friendly mother, that they played ring-a-rosy round her face. The houses along the road were friendly to-night. They flashed Linda a rosy glow, and some of them even winked to introduce themselves. Smoke sylphs were curling gracefully out of a chimney, and stretching silver-white arms above them as they curled in a misty dance. "I feel like stretching my arms to the stars, too," murmured Linda, "you sylphs of lazy loveliness." The barking of a dog sounded across a paddock, melodious and like music. It seemed strangely and warmly in tune. The shop was reached, and Linda's purchase made. Turning, she skipped hack homeward, humming a song. Tho wind hummed a song, too, a lullaby and a laugh. It murmured in the gardens, as Linda went by, and rustled in the trees and hedges. The rustling was like broken bits of. silver sound being shaken into soft, shirring melody. Reaching the gate, Linda paused, her eyes a mist and a shine. "I don't want to go in," she said. But she blew a kiss to the wind and her fancy, and the gate opened and shut behind her.