The Little Shop

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21866, 20 August 1936, Page 7 (Supplement)

The Little Shop

This is the true, though rather 3 odd story of the events that befell ’ Mr Joseph Brierley, of all people) 1 when, at the hour of 11.30 on < Christmas Eve, in the year Ifißl, he i was walking down Queen street. 1 There was literally no normal ex- 1 cuse for his experience. The shops 1 were still flooded with lights, the j streets congested with fat women < and small children, who, to Mr ! Brierley’s no small annoyance, 3 sometimes threw down curious ex- 1 plosive devices on the pavement i underfoot. To crown all, Mr Brier- 1 ley, far from having celebrated in any manner commonly associated 1 with Christmas-tides, had just come , from a board meeting. But though , there may be no explanation of his ] experiences, they seem to carry with them a moral of some sort, It : is this. Let you beware of the for- , gotten thing, for it has never for- , gotten you. And one day, with lips as soft as a silken leaf in a wood, it shall lean down to brush against your cheek. Then, indeed, you will stand like a lost and frightened urchin, pleading with, it not to abandon you: and this Is a position of some awkwardness for a man of affairs. Mr Brierley had taken particular notice, on his progress towards his meeting, of the number of sand-wich-men and magazine sellers who bestrewed the streets untidily, like the discarded skins of bananas. Had his meeting dealt with town planning, instead of with credit systems, he could have been a little eloquent on the subject, for the dark, the skinny, the sinister, and the shabby ■ were to Mr Brierley’s imagination a poor recommendation for any city. And since these very men will later come Into the story again, limping and chattering, as is their habit, It is worth while noting that in clear, cold sense he thought of them only with disgust. it was coming past the comer where the Bank of Australasia is situated that he stepped from a crowded reality into a dream which was spacious and gracious and quaint“-yet very small, like the tiny coloured flowers one sees inside balls of Bristol glass. He saw the little shop. At first, he wag not moved to surprise, since there have been empty shops in Queen street before to-day, and some of them have at times been taken over by odd customers, who think by a touch of the fantastic to catch the public eye. • The little shop had kilted round it a red and a white striped curtain, of the sort that used to be seen in tiny dolls’ house suburbs many years ago. And there sheltered it an awning of red and white striped canvas (which roused curiosity in Mr Brierley’s mind, seeing that he remembered vaguely some by-law forbidding such awnings), and, quaintest of all, the window was lit only by seven Chinese lanterns. These were of blue and pink paper, and across them flew such birds as one never sees but in dreams or on paper lanterns. It was the obvious purpose of the shop to compete, in its humble and rather dingy way, with other establishments selling 1 confectionery end knick-knacks for children. Right in the centre of the window, there was a castle built of pink and white icing, with battlements on the top, and the tiniest sugar maiden that ever one could See ; leaning out of a turret Window. There were all round big ' jars containing twists Of barley sugar, and butterscotch, and chocolate teddy-bears and fish, and pihk and white cushions which (this

(By Robin Hyde)

memory came to him from a long way back) were flavoured highly with mint. He could see the lady of the little shop leaning forward to rearrange her glass jars, and noticed that she was stout and pleasant of face, with a very motherly bosom buttoned into a' loose white blouse, and a faint moustache of down clearly visible above her upper lip. She saw him, too, for she smiled at him. And quite without knowing that he had placed one foot before another, Mr Brier ley moved into the shop. She was attending to some customers who looked very old ahd dingy people, as though they had been for long laid away in mothballs. But she said straightway to Mr Brierley, “Sit down, my dearie," which was a strange manner of address, though a courteous one. He sat down in a little old chair which bent backwards and forwards on wooden rockers. And suddenly an

extraordinary craving came over him to taste again the highly-flav-oured mint in the pink and White cushions. So,, while laughing inwardly at himself, he went to the counter (which towered curiously high and shadowy in the flickering light of the lanterns), and asked for a mint cushion. And in a moment she reached down a glass jar, saying ‘‘That will be a farthing, my bairn." And it came tp Mr Brierley that such cushions must necessarily be sticky and undesirable, and that farthings Were not in New Zealand coinage, but nevertheless; when hs felt in his pocket, he found just such a coin, and gave it to her. And when he tasted the mint cushion, it was cool in his mouth, like the leaves of wild mint that grew by a certain ? [olden-brown stream whose locally he had quite forgotten. , > And with that, a recklessness, came over him, as it might have done over an urchin who suddenly finds himself rich with a shilling that he has made in holding the horses of fine gentlemen. There is this to be pleaded for him, that: all round was the warm, sweet, soicey smell of new bread and aniseed and liquorice, and a few flowers making a nosegay in a little china vase. He put his hand in his pocket, which was extraordinarily full of-coppers,

and commenced buying operations on a large scale. He bought chocolate bars, and striped sticks flavoured with pineapple and toffee that crunched and melted ill the mouth. He even bought a little sugar image that -was like the girl who leaned out of the turret window in the Icing cake. And the woman looked at him with wonder, and said,, in her pleasant way, “it’s a long time since sweet things have come your way, my little lad." He could not doubt that to her he seemed a child, though this may have been because those kind, brown eyes of hers were blind. . With that he stumbled out of the shop—and became aware instantly of a number of ragged children who stood, silently and listlessly about, One and all looking at the lighted windows of the little shod. They were brighter than Fairyland, or than that Cave of Jewels which Aladdin found. Mr Srierley felt shame to himself when he saw the brown empty eyes and the thin hands of these ragged children. And thinking, “Certainly, 1 shall be sick if I eat this rubbish,” he started quickly to give his pur»

chases away to all those standing near. The woman of the little shop looked on with a wise and kindly smile. And, as for the children, they crowded round him, and cried out-with a pleasure Strange to see in any so weary and pallid, and cheered him as hi» trivial sweets passed into their hands. And suddenly out of the press an enormous policeman moved, as If he were made - of wood and could not bend at the Joints: and his hands clapped Mr Brierley on the shoulder. With that, the light* of the little shop went out fill • tO* gether, and Mr Brierley found himself on the pavement, surrounded by a rabble of sandwich-men and others who looked to be of no substantial means. And these looked shappy,5 happy, yet anxious. But' the oliceman stared.at them threaten* ifily, as if daring them to move, as he said to Mr, Brierley, <'Celobratlng, slrT Then Mr Brierley became aware that he had a pound note in his outstretched hand, and that- moreover, all the ragged .meii round him clutched notes which he had undoubtedly given them. And he saw the policeman, and he knew that if he explained that he had acted in complete unconsciousness, he might recover a pocketful of money. But there stood «u

the edge of the crowd one * slim. 'Wistful lad whose bands * were quite empty. And Mr Brierley called this boy to him. and said, “Here, my lad,** giving him - the one note left in his hand. Sar .s the policeman moved on. and the' - child drew back, smiling, but OOfe - before Mr Brierley had noticed flat . the eyes, the brows afid the tumfch.— led hair of this waif were his But before he could draw the boy . close to him, he had vanished. ' And it may be mat piece of paper.. I he carried with him, a mill grtt M stiffly given by a conscious man; will be Mr Brierleyns tomtom aw - day when the world of dreams bos its way with him, and he stood* hungry-eyed outside the famtoed* windows of a little shop.

Protecting Forests

Three pupils from the W*2d school, Winchester, South Canterbury, have sent these notes on ,thg: work of the New Zeeland Bird Forest Protection Society. Ibqr * are I* B. Jameson, P. G. Moore D. I>. Gillanders. : Our policy alms at:— 1. The elimination of all pafctfrfV eating animals in' our 'forest as fi|;.S ! . as possible. " . 2. The preservation of all sancfe - tuaries, scenic reserves and nationm. (1 parks, in their native stale. jJL i The secretary of our society waßlrlb be glad to receive opinions, augfe** . tions or reports cm any' tsza mM J forest matters. In New Zealand we are faced with the forest problem unknown in any other country. For, during, countless yean, w* plant-eating animals roamed la OH? forests. A forest therefore wed evolved which cannot resist die attacks of the deer and the thar sad . the goat. | Yet such animal* have been twr- ~ polity introduced Into these tine- ■ honoured tree communities, anddow as agents of destruction are present in their thousands. Out of 293 Mhds of trees and shrubs not suae than 10 kinds are found wild in otter, lands. * . Without birds and forests we. could not live, because the rivers , would soon carry away all the food soil and there would be famine n- „ the land. Sven now the shortness a€ trees is great, but it is not too late to save the trees and birds. Every boy who destroys trees and birds > is ruining New Zealand's beautiful if , scenery. : : The work of the Bird and Fcrest m Protection Society does much to- j wards this. Soon waits butietSies ; will destroy all plants- it is net too late to save birds and destroy ■ all white butterflies. i

Lammas

. " Gule of August was the name of Ohe of the four great pagan fto**™*of Britain. 1; ana held about 2*. firtt of August to celebrate the gathering ctf Hie harvest .Wgl I Christianity was introduced ®® - Britain the festival was coatfcaMPd” the first' of Atifist but HwlfW" ’ took their offerings to chawdh a loaf was the usual offgNn rZ day became known as HatP® (bread-celebration) gad that rt . money to servants with buy gloves hence the la^. Silver. Until the time of. th* rSal" formation every family who ®ga. afford it gave an arutuai of one penny to the WpLammas day. This known as Denarius Saneti IHMHE os FeteV Caiaii"''i