SMALL ONES :

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 144, 20 June 1931, Page 18

SMALL ONES :

Shortest day is nearly over and gone, and now, very soon, we can look for King Winter in good earnest. You'll see his breath on the grass in the morning, and his cold white hands on the trees at night. Last year when we asked him along to the Fairy Ring, he simply refused to leave again—he stayed for months and months! This year I think we'll give him a Friday-riight-to-Monday-morning invitation, shall we? . . . and tell him exactly when the Spring Child is going to happen, so that he can't take advantage. 'Course, we mustn't leave him out altogether and entirely. The green things need their sleeping time, and the Little People, the Makers of Beauty, need preparing time. So shall we have the Winter Page three weeks from now? That will be not too early and not too late, and the right breathing-space for my own little Makers of Beauty to find wintery things for the Fairy Ring. And while you're working, here's a spell to whisper to scare away impatient Jack Frost: "Keen winds, do not me harm, . Bright fires, Iceep me warm: Winter days, brightness send To me, and to my friend." FAIRIEL.