Page 20 Advertisements Column 3

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 111, 13 May 1933, Page 20

THE LITTLE ICE-MAN Found for the Fairy Ring by "Sweet Lavender," of Kelburn.) TOIVO was a little Finnish, boy. In Finland the winter is very cold; th» lakes and rivers are frozen, and the pine trees are thick with snoTV. Every, morning Toivo skated along the black, frozen river to school) wrapped in his little fur coat, and his fur cap over his ears. One dark day, as he went swiftly along through the avenue of trees that Finns have in holes along the ice to mark the way, he heard a tiny tap-tap under the ice. Toivo listened and felt curious, then hurried on to school. The next day as he passed by the same little fir tree he heard tap.tap again. "I will bring my ice-axe to-morrow," said Toivo. The next day he made a deep, deep hole in the ice, but there was nothing to be seen until 'he returned from school, and.then, sitting on the lowest branch of the fir tree, he saw the little ice-man. He jwas a queer little creature, with blue cheeks and hands, and an icicle for a nose, and his beard and hair wera like snow. He was dressed in a belt of shining icicles. "Halloo!" said the ice-man. "It was nice of you to show dip the wajr into the world again." "Couldn't you get out!" asked Toivo. "Xo," said the little ice-man, "and it's dull down there, and talking to the fishes doesn't. amuse me at all. Now I can see thefolk skating-to market, and talk to nice little boys." "I'll make you a Ijttle snow hut," cried Toivo, and he ran to bring enough snow to make a comfortable little house for the snow man, with a nice little snow bed in one corner. , "Leave the windows open," said the ice-man. "The north wind agrees with me, and makes the house cosy." He lived in his snow house, and every, day he told Toivo stories, until the snow began to melt, "Summer is coming," cried Toivo. "How disagreeable!" said the ice-man. "I must go back to my grandfather, the iceberg, at once. Warm weather makes me thin. I can't imagine why people want the sun at all." "Wilt you come back next year?" asked Toivo. "That depends on 'my, grandfather, the iceberg," said the ice-man. "He was annoyed when I ran! off to see the world, but it will amuse him. to hear about; the things I hava seen, for the. Arctic Ocean is a dull place." The little ice-man made a few snow pancakes, and swallowed them, looking sadly at his belt of shining icicles which was begining to melt, and got, ready to begin his long voyage1 back to the Antarctic Ocean. "Good-bye, Toivo," he cried. "Tt, was good of you to make me that cosy house, and I've enjoyed our little talks. I have nothing to give you but a little advice, for I have noticed how foolishly you • shiver. Listen! You must laugh when it freezes, run when it snows, and sing songs when ' the north wind blows." Then the little ice-man dived under the ice, and Toivo was left alone.

.". LUPINS " — ♦ . (By Jan* East.) Each day the lovely lupins That iho»t up straiiht and tall Grow lovelier and bluer, Beiidt my aarden wall. Sometimes I think they itand there Like tidy little firli In frocks »f blue tsbralco. Their hair in corkscrew eurli. And sometimes when the sunshine Lies lold on irass and tree, I know that they an bluer Than the middle »f the sea. It makes me sad to think »f The tint when they'll he dead. Add Instead of lovely lupin* Thtrt'll b* t bare, brown b»d!