Little Folk

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1922, Page 16

Little Folk

[AU Eights Reserved]

No. 14,

SHUT OUT

(Written for "The Post" by BditE Howes.)

"I can't geb in!" mo-aned the Spirit of the Air. "They won't let me in!"- She flattered up and down, and beat her beautiful wings against the windowpane. "Let me in-! Oh, let me in," the begged.

"What is tie matter V' asked Sunshine. "They won't let me in," repeated the Spirit of the Aiv. "He is ill and they have shut him in, there, and they won't let me in to heal him. They ajje poisoning him. He will die!" She tapped on the window_ with her invisible fingers and pushed against it with, heir gentle strength. "Let me in!" she oalled. "Who is ill?" asked Snnshine.

"It is my little friend. He loves me. When ho played out here in the yawl, be would turn his face ap and smile at my soft touch. He could not see me, yet he loved me. When I stung him with my coldness, aa .it is good for humans to be stung at tunes, he would run and run in the wind till his eyes shone like stars, and he was rosy oil over with health and happiness. But now he playa in the yard .no move. He lies ill in his bed, and lam shut out, I who would heal him. His room is dani am' heavy with the poison of their breaths, and that is all he has to breathe. Oh, why won't they let me in to chase that horror from tjho room? I ■would fill his feeble lungs with strength, his pallied veins with life." Sunshine peered_ in at the edge of the blind. "So that is he!" she said. "He is my little friend, too. Many a game I have played with him in. this yard. But he is five now, and they have cent him to school. There lie was shut up in a room with half a hundred others, all poisoning each other with their breaths, and you and I could play with him and heal him only when his hours of school were over. How_ iU lie looks, poor little one I" Three fairies flew over the wail into the yard. The first was the Browr Bread Fairy. Her hair was long and golden, her robe- was golden and* garlanded _ with ears of wheat, her oap was the quaintest little brown loaf, hollowed out for her head. The next was the Apple Fairy, a round, roguish, rosy-cheeked fellow, in a suit of russet and green. The third was the Lettuce Fairy, in crinkled petticoats of light green silk. They hovered in front of the window and fluttered away to the fast-shut.door and then came baok to the window again. "Do you want to go in too?" ask«d Sunshine. • _ ,

"Yes,"' replied the Brown Bread Fairy, "every day we come and beg to be let in; but the Goblins are in that house, and they have it shut againet us." . "Goblins? What Goblins.?"

"There'd that wicked White Bread, for one. She is really a relation of mine, but I am ashamed to own her, the pastyfaced; evil thing. She has done untold harm to that poor child in there,' clogging his little inside passages., sitting about and pretending to nourish him when in reality she is doing nothing of the Bort. How differently I would aofc if only I were in there. 'Push on!' I would say. 'Keep moving!' And the child's inside works would go merrily, for my roughness and coarseness 'are better for them than her stodgy sleekness and fineness. And I would nourish him with my rich nourishment. I? only they would let me in!"

"TIIO Sweete Goblin is there too," said the Apple Fairy. "He doea the 6tupidest things, wherever he is, and he is sure to have made trouble id the little chap's body. ' Besides, he clings round teeth and makes a good feeding-ground for ths germs that fly into the mouth. Then they grow there, and make diseases that bore into the teeth or go down the throat. Oh, I wish they would let me in to^the little boy! I'd isolish his teeth for him!. With my sharp juice Td clean up his mouth and olear away all gerxne." "That fierce red Meat Goblin is in there too," said the Lettuce Fairy. "He takes all his meals with the family, and never leaves the little boy alone. I and my green garden cousins would gladly take his place and make the child's blood pure. Why don't'they let us in V Another fairy came floating through the morning air,_ trailing robes of mist embroidered with dewdrops and raindrops that rolled and flowed and forever formed new patterns on the mist; for this was Water, shining and beautiful. '1 heard you talking, so I came," she said. "Something must be done, or ths child will die. The Teapot Goblin reigns in there where I should be. Every day his brown face grins more widely at the mischief he is doin^. But talking will not force the door or window. What can we do?" :

"Why not go to Wisdom and ask her?" called a new voice, strangely smooth and soft; and Soa-p, in a gown of glittering bubbles, came round the comer of the house. "I have knocked on that door till I am tired," she said,. "They will not let me in, for that blaok imp Dirt is there, nourishing the evil germs that I would kill. Let us go to Wisdom for Ker help."

It is a good thought!" they said, and they flew 'to Wisdom throned upon her mountain, her calm eyes overlooking all the world. *

'It is Ignorance who holds thei house," she £ aid when they had told their tale. "Those others you name are but his slaves. Only Knowledge oan drive bin.forth Mid let you in." .'

She lifted her han-d, and Knowledge came bounding to her feet. He was tall and noble, and arrayed in flashing rainbowu. "Go, save the child 1" she oommandad, and he turned, at onoe and descended to shut the- door of the house. Ho thundered on it with his mighty hand. "Open!" he commanded. "It is I, Knowledge, standing without. I would enter in to save your child."

But the door did not open. From within there oame a cry: "You oan do nothing. Leave us in peace P 1 and the duH"chuck)e of Ignorance. Then no more, though Knowledge beat and beat upon the door. At last ho turned and went with downcast eyes back to Wisdom* throned upon her mountain. "They will not let. mo in,'* he said.

. "You have forgotten," Wisdom said, her calm eyes overlooking all. the world. At those words Knowledge flushed and stooped to ono who sat at Wisdom's feet. "Help mo, Sister!" h© besought her; and she rose gladly in her gown of pearly hues, and gladly she went with him to Enb house. Hers was the k>veliest voice in all the kingdoms of tiio earth, and becauee of it she had three names; when she whispered she was Fancy, when she told her magic tales she was Imagination, when she sang she was Poetry. She sat on the doorstqp and' began to tall a wonderful tale. There was silence in tho house- as her exquisite voice stole softly in, and presently tha door was set ajar for better hearing. Wider and wider the opening grew, till quietly, unnoticed, Knowledge stepped wichin; and suddenly tho house was lit with rainbow hues.

Ignorance sprang from his black crouching and fled before, that brightness, and his slaves shuddered away from sight. Knowledge threw wide tho windows, pud tlie beautiful fairies entered in. The Spirit pf the Air chased tho poison from the. room and fdled the sick boy's lungs with strength, his veins with life. Sunr shine played with him and warme.d h's heart, the other fairies nourished him and. cloßXßrl away the evil gornv. So ha grew well and strong, and joy filled the house.

. The New York City Health Department has just inaugurated a reform by putting into force a regulation under which babies are to have their linger prints lalion a,nd attached to their bivth'certificates. This practien will be of the utmost vwlup in safeguarding tho lives of children, in findini; tlieni when they are lost, discovering their parent's if they should ba abandoned, ftiicl making identity easy in «ny cite of emsrgenoy.