LORNA'S ADVENTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

LORNA'S ADVENTURE.

(By I?uby Brown, 11, Tarau Street, Kaiti, Gisborne; aj;etl i;'>.) One day Lorn a's mother eaine into her rooiri, and found her sitting 011 her bed, reading. "Oh, Lorna," she said, "how mail}' times have I told you not to sit on your bed on such a lovely day?" "But, mummy, what can I do?" asked Loijih. "Well, ws it's such a lovely (lay, why not take your lunch and go for a wall;, but don't, on any account, go near Lampton's Hill," answered her mother. Lanipton's Hill was a towering hill that was really so steep it could almost bo called a. mountain. Jt was known to be about half a mile down to Lorn a's home, and had a dangerous swamp 0:1 one side of it.

As Lorna had lived most of her life in a boarding-house, away from home, she did not know about this, and therefore, did not properly grasp the significance of her mother's words. "All right, mum, but can't I go a little way up?" asked Lorna. I promise I won't go far." "Then don't break that promise, Lorna, and don't wander off the path."' "Oil, mum, you're a brick," cried her daughter. Xot very long after, Lorna wandered oft' to explore some of her father's plantation. Suddenly, she stopped, and thought of her mother's words. Why had her mother been so anxious about her going too far up Lampton's Hill. "I won't trouble myself about goinpr too far." said Lorna to herself. "I think I'll go there now."

So she retraced her steps towards Lampton's Hill. She was only half-way up when she saw a bunch'of golden daffodils, and, being a Nature lover, ghe hastened to gather them. She saw clump after clump, and after filling her arms she turned to see how far she had come.

She gasped when she finallv grasped the meaning of those hazy," far-away fields. She had wandered from the main track, and suddenly, seeing a path, she hastened towards it.

She had l>een following the path, hoping that it would lead her to the main track again, when it began to grow dark. Black clouds were chasinnacross the sky, and the homely sun was blotted from view. A flash of lightnin-' rent the air, and peal upon peal o*f thunder nearly deafened her as she quickened her steps.

Tlien a drop of rain, followed bv another, told her that the storm had started and soon it was pouring down. •She looked around her and saw a clump of bushes under which she threw herself, trying to keep dry, and shut out that awful noise.

It rained steadily for nearly an hour, then suddenly it stopped, and the thunder rumbled off further into the distance, then was stilled. The stars were beginning to twinkle, and it was getting dark when she came out from under the bush. There was no real damage dono. only the ground was strewn with branches.

She went on her way now. not knowing where she went, for there was a blanket of darkness all round her, and the stars had dwindled away like lamps of heaven being blown out.

There was a wind, too, an icy wind, that seemed to cut one in 'two, and which stirred up everything in its whirlingway. Suddenly her feet began to sink into the ground, and, being very tired, it was difficult for her to pull th<*w out.

"All of her efforts were useless, however, and a dreadful sensation of fear came over her. The awful truth struck her with overwhelming force. She w:caught in the swamp that kept suckini her down, sucking at her ae if it were a giant magnet.

She was over her knees in thick, black mud, antl her position felt helpless, when, suddenly, she heard, the deep bayinc ci : clogs. ' c

Then a voice broke the silence. It was her father's voice, calling her, an J weakly she called back.

At last help had come, and after manv trying minutes she was pulled out or that hungry, sucking mud, and taken home, a sorry but a wiser girL