PERIWINKLE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22341, 3 March 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

PERIWINKLE

(By E. Spence)

Nancy's father was a lighthouse keeper. The lighthouse was on a rocky coast, a long way from the nearest town. Indeed, it was such a long, long way from anywhere, that Nancy had nobody at all to play with, but Jeanie the sheepdog pup. The lighthouse was up on a headland, and in a gully at the side was the grey cottage where Nancy lived with her mother and father. .There was a taupata hedge round the garden to keep the cow out, and a little path covered with white pebbles ran down to the beach. At the side on which her bedroom window looked out. a small brown stream came tumbling out of the bush gully, slipped through a grove of pine trees, and then was nearly all soaked up by the sand on the beach. . On still nights when the pine trees were not roaring in the wind, Jfancy could hear the little stream chuckling to itself as it ran through the trees. It was a lovely place to live in. There was a pony to ride, there was a real lighthouse to climb up. her father sometimes took her out !fishing, and she had a beach all to herself for paddling and building sandcastles. But the U-ouble was. there was nobody to play with. You soon get tired of sandcastles and of everything else, if there isn't anyone to share the fun. The nearest little girl lived 10 miles away, and didn t come to play more than once a month. Real little girls were out of the question, but Nancy did wish her father would catch her a mermaid to play with. The mermaids lived under the water that lay between the lighthouse point and a little island, wh?re y:u could see the yellow-brown kelp beds tossing and twisting in the blue rip. Her father would never take thf» dinghy there when they went fishing because he said he might hook a mermaid on the line. "Oh, but I would love you to catch a little mermaid, daddy," said Nancy. "Couldn't you catch her in the net, not on a hook, and then she wouldn't be hurt?" "But what would you do with

her?" he asked. "She couldn't live out of the water, you know." "I'd put her in the pool in the stream. She'd love that. Oh. do catch one." "She couldn't live in fresh water, dearie. They have to have seawater, or they die." "Oh, well, couldn't you dig a big hole on the beach, and the water would run in? Oh, daddy, do please do that. I do so want somebody to play with."

But her father didn't seem to understand how very much she wanted a little mermaid to play with, and mother wasn't much good, because she never went out fishing, and couldn't manage the net. "I'll just have to look among the rocks always; and perhaps some day I'll find one there," thought Nancy. So very often she used to play among the rock pools, where the little fishes flicked in and out among the weed, and bits of paua shell lay gleaming under the water. Every time she climbed round a rock to get to another pool, she thought excitedly, "perhaps she'll be in this next one." One bright, windy day, when white waves were dashing on the : island, and the kelp beds were throwing up long snaky arms as the water sped through the rip. Nancy suddenly found her mermaid. She was sittin" in a pool, under the shadow of a big rock. -"Oh," whispered Nancv in delight, and stood quite still. She was the loveliest little mermaid you could possibly imagine. Her tail was covered with green and blue scales, so that it looked exactly the colour of paua shells when they are under the water. Her face was quite white, and her wet black hair floated about her in the pool. "Oh, don't swim away, mermaid," begged Nancy, not daring to move for fear of frightening her away. They looked at each other shyly for a minute, and then suddenly they both smiled, and in less time than it takes to tell, they were talking together as if they had been friends for years and years. What an exciting morning they had! The mermaid's name was Periwinkle. She told Nancy all about the sea cave under the island ■where she lived; of how she slid down the sides of the great waves

when the storms came, and played with the seals that sometimes came to the island to bask. She, called the little fishes to her, and they stayed quite still and let Nancy stroke them softly. Then they played "Ladies," and had a teaparty, with sea-anemones for jellies and fan-shells for plates. It was one .of the nicest mornings that Nancy had ever spent. Her father had to come calling her when lunch was ready. After that they played together every day. They were the greatest friends. They told each other all their secrets, and they never quarrelled. Indeed, it would have been impossible to quarrel with Periwinkle, she was so sweet. She was always willing to play what Nancy wanted, and always waiting when she came to the rock pool. Of course Nancy had to bi in bed by 8 o'clock, but Periwinkle, who didn't seem to have any mother, could spend the whole night swimming about if she wished. When they had been friends for a while, she used to call to Nancy, after the bedroom light was put out, and Nancy, curled up in bed, would think how nice it would' be to go swimming round in the moonlight with Periwinkle. She hadn't been wishing this for very long, before she decided to get up and run down to the beach One beautiful still night she crept out of bed and walked down the path in the dew. Nobody in the house ever knew anything about it and she had a splendid time with Periwinkle. After that it was easy to slip out every night. Then Periwinkle began to urge her to come right out beyond the breakers. "I'll hold you if you get tired," she would say. "Do come. It's lovely sliding down the waves." Nancy longed to go with her, but she, was rather afraid. But Periwinkle went on persuading, and Nancy felt that. some day, when she could find enough courage, she would go right put beyond the breakers. Now, the worst of knowing a mermaid is, they are never satisfied with just playing in the rock pools. They always want to take their friends away out to sea, or right down under the water, where, of course, ordinary little girls and boys can't breathe, and so die.

And I am quite sure that one night Nancy would have run down the path and would never have come back, if something hadn't happened just then to stop it. Her father pulled two suitcases down from the top of the linenpress, and her mother opened up the sewing machine. What do you think was happening?. Nancy was going away to boarding school. She cried dreadfully at first to Periwinkle about it, but when a gymnastic tunic and six pairs of black Cashmere stockings appeared, and a black velvet frock with a lace collar for best, she began to feei rather interested. And soon she was so busy sewing woven names on things, that she didn't even have time to run down to the beach. On her last night at home she said good-bye to Periwinkle, and they both promised never to have anybody else for their best friend, and to meet again when Nancy came home for the holidays. When the holidays arrived, she rushed down to show the little mermaid her new hockey stick, and they talked and talked, until their tongues were positively tired. Ana of course they agreed to meet again when the next holidays came along. But Barbara Williams who slept in the bed next to Nancy's, came home with her at the end of the term, and somehow Nancy felt she would laugh at mermaids, and teaparties with sea anemones for jellies. So she saw very little of Periwinkle. And then Nancy began to learn French, and was put up into ThretV Remove, and her legs began to grow so long that her tunic had to be let down two inches. And of course you couldn't expect anyone in the Junior C Hockey Team to play "Ladies." I am afraid she began to forget all about Periwinkle. Sometimes she heard her calling on still, moonlight nights in the holidays, and then after a while she didn't even notice that. Poor little Periwinkle swam sadly away from the lighthouse point, and did not ever come back. Of course, it was just as well, I suppose. It doesn't do to become too friendly with a mermaid. It wouldn't be pleasant to disappear under the sea. You should always remember that, if you ever meet one.