WHY PERIWINKLES HAVE PAINT BRUSHES.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 77, 27 September 1941, Page 13

WHY PERIWINKLES HAVE PAINT BRUSHES.

Do you know why the lovely ■ trumpet-shaped periwinkles have fairy \ paint brushes hidden deep down inside their petals? Once upon a time, long ago, a group of worried pixies met under an old tree. It was autumn, and they all hejd in their hands pots of i bright-coloured paint,, for they had been busy painting .the leaves of all the trees glowing reds and yellows and j oranges, making them look just like hundreds and thousands of fairy lan-1 terns. The leader of the pixie band started to speak. "What are we going to do with our paint brushes?" he said. ''Every time we finish painting the leaves, Autumn Wind swoops down and carries our brushes away. What does he do with them? Does anyone know?" "He gives them to Spring, to paint rainbows oh the sky," a chorus of voices answered. "Well, Spring has always used flowers," the leader said rather defiantly. "She doesn't want our brushes. Where are we going to hide them until next year?" Everyone thought very hard, then one plump little fellow suggested, "Couldn't we hide them in some flowers?" "What about the periwinkles? They are so pale that they can hardly be noticed." And so that is why paint brushes are found in periwinkles. The pixies were so grateful to them that they painted them soft, delicate blues, so that periwinkles are among the loveliest flowers there are today. "GREY OWL" (15). Kilbirnie.