GOOD NIGHT STORIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

GOOD NIGHT STORIES

"Rolling, splashing, Dashing— Crashing— Foaming crest, Xever rest — Waves." —Shadow Song. • * • * It was late at night. The moon was in the sky, and Mij, Flor, Hamd Yam and Knarf were looking up at it. "Who's going to talk to it?" Flor wanted to know.

"I am," Knarf replied, "as soon as I see the man." "What man?" asked the others. "The man in the moon, of course. The shadow children had a difficult question to ask of the moon. It was. Why do the waves in the ocean never stop moving? You may think this an odd question to ask of the moon, which seemed to have very little more to do with waves than to shine on them. Nevertheless, the shadows had s P°ken to the seagull and the seagull had spoken to its mother and she had advised asking the moon. So, strange as it appeared, they decided to ask the moon. _ f% it After gazing very hard, Knarf finally discovered the man in the moon and, putting his hands to his' mouth, he shouted' up: . ~ "Hello, there, Mr. Man in the Moon, why do the waves always keep moving?" , Now, the man in the moon was too busy at this moment eating a slice ot green cheese, and didn't like, moreover, to shout down so late at night, so he sent a firefly to talk to them. "What"do you want to know? the firefly inquired, as it lit on a blade ol grass near them, the next moment. My master, the man in the moon, ordered me to talk to you." "Why do the waves always keep moving?" asked Knarf, wondering how a firefly could know anything about it.

"H'm," said the firefly brightly, "yon did right to ask the man in the moon, for the moon has a pood deal to do with it. It causes the tides—" "It does!" exclaimed Mij. Then he added: "What are they, please?" "I don't know much about them except that there are two of them; high title and low tide. High tide is like a huge wave that always rises up just under the moon, as though it were trying to reach it." "Why does it do that?" Yam put in. "I don't know, except that it likes the moon and wants to touch it. Anyhow, this high tide keeps following the moon round and round in all the oceans, and wherever it happens to be shining. When it's day here, the moon is shining on the other side of the earth, where it's night time." "In China," said clever Hanid. "Yes, and in other places too. And low tide follows high tide. And that's what makes the waves. High tide keeps rolling round and round looking for the moon, and low tide follows right after. And that makes the waves keep moving all the time, for the moon's always somewhere to be found—" "Oh, no, it isn't," Knarf broke in. "Where is it before it is a new moon? It isn't anywhere at all. The waves ought to lie still then. Why don't they ?" The firefly's light flickered in a puzzled manner. "H'm, that's a hard question," it said at last. "I'll have to ask my master in the moon about that." And the next instant it flew off, leaving the shadows with a great deal still to know about why the waves never stopped moving.