A FRIEND UNAWARE.

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 25, 13 November 1930, Page 4

A FRIEND UNAWARE.

Stella was a little town girl, and when she went to stay with Aunt Kate in the country, she was ..dreadfully afraid of all the country creatures. If the cows grazing at the roadside lifted their heads, and looked at her with their big mild eyes, she was sure they wanted to toss her up on their crumpled horns, and the squealing pigs and gobbling turkeys filled her with terror. But the animal she was most afraid of was Laddie, Farmer Gill's big sheep dog. Stella had never seen Aunt Kate before she came to stay with her, and she didn't like to tell her how very frightened she was, and Aunt I^ate, thinking it was a treat for any little girl to go to a farm for the- milk, sent Stella every evening, And every evening Laddie came running to meet her, barking great deep barks of welcome. But Stella though he was only teiling her to\*go away because she was a stranger, and she expected him every moment to bite her bare legs. "If only Aunt Kate wouldn't send me!" she used to sigh. But every evening" Aunt Kate said: "Now, Stella, it's time to go for

the milk," and Stella took the can and set off with a fast beating heart. Then one evening she found a dreadful new frightening thing in the field. Round the pond was a big flock of geese, which Farmer Gill had. bought that day at the fair in the town. With them was a big white gander, and they were all Happing their wings and making strange noises. Steila stood at the stile and though she dare not go, but the last she got down and began to run across the lield. Perhaps it was her bright pink dress that made the gander catch sight of her. Anyway, he came running, his neck stretched out, hissing through his bright yellow beak like a boiling kettle, and poor Stella knew that she could never, reach the farmhouse door before that dreadful white streak was upon. her. But Laddie had seen what was happening, and.;like „ a brown streak he raced to meet the white one. With loud yelps and growlings he turned the gander and \ chased him towards the pond, and as Stella stook shaking there the farmer came out. ' 'Hullo, little lassie!" he said. "Did the old gander chase you? You just put your hand through ; Laddie's collar, } and ne 'U take care of you." Stella ehokejd down her tears as Laddie came racing back, and then she saw what she had always been too frightened to notieer— that his eyes were soft and gentle, and smiling into hers, and suddenly she put out her arms and hugged him, and when Laddie felt the little trembling hands lie was ever so careful not to bump or frighten her. 11 There! ' ' said the farmer, when the milk was ready. "Laddie will take you acroiss the field. See, boy, go with her." , So Stella crossed the field with the milk can in one hand and the other through the big dog's collar and the gander grumbled and hiss ed by the pond because he dare not come near. Every evening after that, when Stella reached the stile, she had only to call /'Laddie, Laddie.!" and he would come bounding across the field to take care of her and she really could not think how she could ever have been so silly as to^be afraid of him. The soles of babies' indoor slippers should be rubbed from time to time -with sandpaper to roug-lien. them. This will save them many a fall on the shiny lino or boards.