HER MASCOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 299, 17 December 1937, Page 8

HER MASCOT.

AN AMAZING CAT.

YOUNG GIRL SPRINTER.

CHAMPION AT SIXTEEH.

As she sat on the front verandah mil flo-day an<l played with a twig nearby tree. Miss iMreen Lumley dj<j not speak much of running. or the eon. ing trip to Australia, She was awi* concerned with a much loved cat a}* was going to leave behind.

This cat, apparently, is a wonder among cat?, a regular puss-in-boots/lt lean do anything. Jt can be"-, it I messages with people, and it* oomeft? | meet the family when they are dn I home. Its only Tailing i~ that it iul never caught a mouse in Hs life Xo. running is infinitely of Imm importance than the welfare "of the a? This, anyway, is Miss Lumlev's opinion" Just 16 years of age, she ought to know the relative importance of running pete, for she is probably the fastest girl over 100 yards in New Zealand. Sbs has been chosen to represent her conn try over that distance at the cominj | Empire Games in Australia. 5 Not Visibly Impressed. vShe is not visibly impressed wit], what she has done. If truth be told she is interested more in the fact that the la going to be presented witt l blazer, a garment which she has never been given before. It will bear tie coveted silver fern, but even that dm not seem to matter as much *g supremely important fact that this k a blazer. No, the was not nervous (and <®, could well believe it), or rather fed been only once. That was just beW the big race in Wellington last Sat®, day, where she won the 100 yards. Xine telegrams had been sent to her she read them before she raced. ' One of these, so the signature toV her, was from the "Cat." It was ilk cat that made her nervous: and it wu of the cat that she thought at ak. raced to victory.

She lias been running since she *u a little girl. Until last vear she «at never trained, and now onlv her an. action las been altered. She" just Efa» to run. And besides running she Eb« drawing. ~

Which do you like better, runnine* drawing? 6

She wrinkled her brows and treated the question with all the seriousness o! 10 Tears. "Tbev are different.*' wag her ? I ultimate decision, given in such a. tow that the quwiioner felt quite I He did not pursue that subject further. So much of a. child, prominence has not spoiled her. She ha* given 11104 serious thought to the problem whether she (should wear shorter spikes hi he running shoes, and whether she shooM have her two jet black, more than shoulder length plaits cut off. She x not sure. Perhaps her mother win decide. Mother Invariable Companion. Her mother and ouster., afeo an accomplished runner ("four yards in a him. drod behind me,' w«ju> Dorcen a %cne summing-up.) are going with ier to Sydney. Her father and brother are going to etay behind and look after tie cat. Her mother eccompaniw btt daughters to every athletic meeting, or perhaps it ie that the girls will not go without her. Up to the present they have taken the cat with them too, hoc a trans-Tasman trip is a little fax. E% eryone in Livingstone Street ii much interested in Doreen'esuccess. The family have had many lettere, many telegrams and more visitors. And they still keep coming. And through it all the child who can do 100 vaxds in tfe New Zealand record-equalling time of 11 1-i* is entirely unaffected. She has not begun to get excited, and all tka dresses she knows she is going to for certain are the linen suits she wfil run in. '"I will need one or two others," she suggested more or less indifferently. And so early next year Miee Lumley will compete against the best in tie hmpire; and not only the best wishes of Livingstone Street, but of the whole of New Zealand will go with her.