ONE WINDY DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

ONE WINDY DAY.

\r? T It was a tremendously windy day. People clutched their hats and whirled themselves about to keep their umbrellas from being blown inside out, Billy and Betty enjoyed all the fun and fuss. They watched on© old gentleman chase his hat until, just as he thought it was caught, it slipped under a bus Billy grinned and Betty giggled, for when the hat appeared again it wasn't a hat any more. The cyclist had been riding with, his head down against the wind, so he had noticed nothing and just pedalled on. Soon the cries of the lady pursuing her hat reached him and he stopped. Politely he returned the hat—somewhat battered, but still a hat. Suddenly as they ■fumed a corner a great gust of wind almost knocked them over. Then a lady's hat blew off into the muddy road and bowled gaily along like a hoop. When it was tired of bowling along it llew into the back wheel of a bicycle. Betty shrieked, "Oh, my hat!" and started to run. Billy's cap had been blown over his eyes, and when he had restored it to its proper place the first thing he saw was Betty's hat some way off rolling over and over along the road. He ran after it, but the hat kept well in front of him. It led him a long chase, and when he caught it he went back to the corner where he and Betty had parted. Betty was at the corner, with her back toward him, gazing into a shop window. And she was wearing her hat! Billy looked and looked again, then he slipped Up, behind her and whispered in her ear, "Whose hat are you wearing?" Betty jumped, and seeing the second hat, took off the one she wore and stared at it in amazement. The two hats were exactly alike, even to the school hatbands. Billy and Betty were so puzzled by the hats that they started violently when a voice said, "Please, is one of those hats mine'/'' On turning Betty saw a girl from her own school, a very shy little girl whom :die knew by sight, but tc whom she had never spoken. Hetty turned the hat she had been wearing and looked inskle. "Of course it's yours? here's a label!" she exclaimed. "If you'r>_ Joan?" She was Joan, so there was no doubt about it. The hats were exchanged, and. shy Joan and talkative Betty were soon friends.