THE BUSH FAIRY.

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 286, 29 August 1931, Page 21

THE BUSH FAIRY.

Hid among the tangled fem-growth, cool and shady ’neath the trees, Where the rill is tinkling loudly ruffled by the summer, breeze, There’s a path, a narrow path leading onward full of turns. There’s a bower nestling under hidden by the waving fems, There’s a fairy living there, an elusive Maori Elf, Hiding there his bushland treasures and his little store of pelf. Works. he there in Autumn, painting all the leaves. Gathering from the grasses all the ■grassland sheaves; Smoothing the baby fronds in Winter, wrapping them up tight, Till the glowing Springtime comes with warmth and light. Painting all the flowers in Summer with his colours bright, Some with modest blue tints, some with purest white. Tone, mighty Forest God pays with fairy treasure, For which the BusKland Fairy works, then spends on Elfin pleasure. When his span of work is done he rejoins his Elfin folk, From which, to work with Tone all ties he broke, ( Thus lives the Bushland Fairy, Maori Elfin Bprite, Bringing to our forests, colour, warmth and light. —Original, by Phyllis Marshall Hawke's Bay (aged 14 years).