The Young Folk's Budget of fun stories & competitions

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 3, 5 January 1938, Page 16

The Young Folk's Budget of fun stories & competitions

MY MAGIC GLADE.

(By Winifred Davidson, Donovan Street, Blockhouse Bay.)

The sunlight softly filters through The ferns, which like an awning hang Above a magic fairy glade; O'er where at dusk a lone thrush sang, And where at night, amongst the leaves, Gay fairies flitted revelling. And round the brown, uneven floor Grow featli'ry ferns and plants that cling Fast to the earth which is their god, And through the leafy opening framed, A dark brown ]>00l that once did flow A wild, careering stream, but tamed By summer's glad carets doth lie. And 011 its surface sunbeams slide, A merry, blithesome fantail chirps, And 'mongst the fronds unseen doth

glide. A locust trills incessantly, A-sunnin.j on a grassy blade, A song of peace and sweet content, That hovers round my fairy glade,

THE STORM WIND SINGS.

(By A.-Beck, Ngatea.) Eerie the song the 6torin wind sings In the trees to-night . . . Of the stormy sky, And the lonely shore Resounding to the breakers' roar, Of pohutukawas on the cliff, Old and twisted, but standing stiff Against the mocking wind's wild whips. Of a sea-bird's cry, As it wheels and dips, And comes to rest; Like a silver leaf That skims a brief Ecstatic instant on a green wave's cre6t; And still, dark pools upon the beach, Where, green and brown, the seaweeds lie Beyond the thundering ocean's reach. Oh, wild the song The storm wind sings Of the seas to-night! —Original.

OAK TREE THROUGH ROOF.

An oak tree sprouts through the roof of a stationer's shop in Knysna at the Cape, astonishing every visitor. It came there in the oddest way. The street is in a long and beautiful avenue of trees, and by some accident the oak tree was* planted out of line with the rest. Nobody took any notice till Knysna began to expand and shops were built along the avenue. For some time the fate of the oak was in doubt: it was such a beautiful tree that the townspeople did not want it destroyed, though it stood in the way of business, and of a stationer who wanted to extend his shop where the tree stood. The tree won the day, and the stationer made the best of it by extending his shop frontage round the oak tree. Neither his business nor the tree suffers.

ELIZABETH SUCCEEDS.

Elizabeth was worried—very worried. For many long weeks her father had lain ill, and now the doctor had said that his only hope of complete recovery lay in a visit to the Thermal Springs at Rotorua. All their available capital had been spent in paying the medical expenses and providing the necessaries of life for herself and her mother. Money was urgently needed, and, thought Elizabeth, what could a mere schoolgirl do to help provide it.

Now, as she sat in her own room, her home lessons finished, her mind turned again to the problem. She thought of her few possessions—a gold locket and brooch which had been her grandmother's, some cherished books and pictures. No, none of these would raise even enough to pay her father's fare to Rotorua. In her despair Elizabeth thought of her grandfather. "If only he was alive," she said, "he would have known what to do."

She turned to the desk lie Tiad given her, memory stirring. Once when she was only a child of nine he liad showed her through all the pigeonholes and little recesses, and, last of all, had opened a secret drawer cunningly concealed in the very bottom. "Elizabeth," he had said, holding lip a bundle of letters tied with faded blue ribbon, "some day when you are older I would like you to read tliese. They will give you a glimpse of the Old Land. See, I will put them here for you."

Elizabeth wondered curiously if the olcl spring worked. Creakilv it moved, and soon she was turning over the yellowed pages covered with the quaint script of the Victorian era. Suddenly she noticed that the stamps on the envelopes showed the head of Queen Victoria when she was little more than a child. She recalled the words of the chief librarian of the Turnbull Library: "Very early stamps of the Victorian issue are rare. We are hunting for them." Elizabeth had always loved the broadcasts from that treasure house of books in Wellington—and here was a message which might help in her need. Quickly she selected a few envelopes bearing the old stamps and enclosed them in a letter to tlie librarian. Next day she posted the precious packet, and two days later on her return from school her mother handed her an important looking letter with her name typed upon it. Hurriedly she read it, then excitedly seized her mother and danced her round the room. "We can send daddy away now," she cried. "My old stamps are worth a lot of monev, and the library will gladly buy them." So grandfather's gift pf long ago brought much happiness to the little household, and the old letters seemed of greater value still to Elizabeth.