THE CASTLE PLEDGE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 11 August 1928, Page 18

THE CASTLE PLEDGE.

I promise to smile every time I can and to chase all the them with his Magic Sword Happiness.

Dear Smiles, — . There were quite a number of interesting letters again this week from Smiles, including a long one ivom one of our friends who has gone to live m Morrmsvillc. iam always sorry when any of our Smiles leave our distuci, but I like to hear that, when they have to leave our circle hev are able to get the “Star” and still take an interest in reading- the letters that appear each week on the Smile Page I hope our little friend will continue to write to us, even though she Is many miles away. Two other letters that I specially noted made reference to the fact that the writers had seen about their home a beautiful plumaged bird, the kingfisher. He is a curious little fellow, and some of the feathers which adorn his coat are very gay, the wings and back being bn h blue. Like many other birds he becomes bold in the winter when the food supply is scarce, lhe kingfisher , menu is of a varied character and his long pointed beak he uses to good purpose in many ways. As his name implies, he is a keen fisher and to watch these birds catching fn from a stream is intensely interesting. The bird se - a position, a tall tree or high bank, whence it can observe the small fish swimming m the stream below, the like a flash it darts down into the water and invariably fie, back with its prey. The kingfisher is one of the enemies of the little white-dye, which I wrote about some weeks ago, and when it catches one of these tame little birds it beats it to death against a tree or perhaps on a post. The kingfisher will sometimes sit for a long time on a haystack searching lor mice and in the summer time it feeds on tadpoles an ponds. The male bird often shares the catch with its mate, who sometimes answers his signal and meets him halt-way, even being fed in mid-air. The parent birds are very painstaking in the training of their young. This must be all this week, Smiles. With best love from your— SMILE QUEEN.