UP THE HILL

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 26 (Supplement)

UP THE HILL

Up the hill the wind is blowing, And the grass is waving, waving; Daisies large and white are growing; I must go. Up the hill the birds are singing, And the leafy trees are bowing; Choirs of harebells light are ringing; I must go.

“No. 7,” he repeated as they walked along. “Isn’t that the house where little June lives?” “That’s the name,” answered the Sandman. “And a good little girl she is indeed. Seldom gives me any trouble, slips off to sleep at the first sign of sand. To-night she was asleep before I reached the house—cried herself to sleep, she had. the tears were wet upon her cheeks.” “I don’t like to hear that,” answered the Dream Man. “Little girls shouldn’t cry themselves to sleep.” “She was disappointed,” explained the Sandman. “Set her heart upon going to some party or other —wasn’t allowed to go.” “Dear! Dear!” sighed the Dream Man, looking very serious. Then he gave the Sandman a little dig with his elbow, doubled up with laughter and rubbed together his small white hands. *“I will take her to a party,” he chuckled. “Nobody can stop me. If I choose I can take little girls to parties every night of the week.” Jo little June went to a party—not Fay Worth’s ; in Rosland Road, biu Cinderella’s! She wore" a silk frock that rustled, and the short little skirt swung as she. walked, her silver shoes squeaked the littlest bit, be jause they were new. The flowers in her hair blended with the ribbons that fluttered from her shoulders as she danced, amythest. pale pink, and blue. The Red Riding Hood was there, and Boy Blue, Little Jack Horner, and Tom the Piper's son. Cinderella was dancing with the Prince, and there was a dream in their eyes.

Golden tapestri< hung from tl j ceiling. and the floor was so highly polished that it mir ed the coloured lights that hung above. There were bon-bons of blue, ami vivid paper hats all shapes and sizes. Streamers caught in your hair as you danced, and twisted about your ankles, and lay upon the shining floor like a fallen rainbow. At supper, she sat next to Cinderella, and opposite Little Boy Blue, who talked of hills with the sun on them and meadows where fairy flowers grew. The cake was indeed most wonderful, the candles flicked and threw long shadows across the sweets, and the trifles, and the jellies, and the cakes. King Cole had sent his Fiddlers Three to play soft music, and a little dancing girl called Silder who flung a rose to June that caught in her hair. And when it was all over, and everybody had fitted themselves into their cloaks, there was the walking home, under the stars, and the moon. Little Red Riding Hood said it looked like a balloon floating up, a gold balloon tangled in . web of stars. And surely there were fairies amongst the evergreen in the gardens. You could hear their little feet. And surely a gnome glided before them, laughing a low little rippling laugh. June laughed too, aloud in her sleep in an ecstasy of joy. Aunt Miralda hearing her. thought, “She is an excitable little thing. I was wise not to let her go to the party —very wise.” In his little wooden house in Sleepy Valley the Dream Man rocked with laughter.