Children's Corner

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 27, 27 November 1930, Page 4

Children's Corner

THE LITTLE GREEN CAKE

On Monday, Scrunch, the Pixie, wanted a balloon.

On Tuesday, Carraway, his friend, wanted a top. On Wednesday, they both want- I ed a kite, And so it went on. Yet they hardly ever got the things they wanted, because they had SO little money. Then {Scrunch had an idea. "Let's have a shop!" he said. i' A cake-shop. We could get lots of pennies then." "1 could make caraway cakes, anyhow," said Carraway. "What j a lovely idea t And you could • make scrunchy rusks for the baby elves!" , "jtiiather," said Scrunch. "Why, there isn't a baker's shop anywhere nearer than the Purple Moor. Wouldn't the Pixie Common folk find it handy % '' i - "We'll go and buy flour and butter and sugar and eggs this very minute,'' said Carraway. " I;, wish I had something besides eara- j way seeds to put in the cakes. j Couia ye manage to get a few raisins, do you think?" • bcruneh shook his head. . ' " isi o," he said, as he peeped into the china money-pig that lived on. the mantelpiece. '-We've only nine farthings,. so we can't buy much of anything. They'll just have to be plain rusks and seed-cakes to-day." x So they went to the grocer's and got their things. Then they had a great baking. When Carraway had put his last batcjji \of seed-cakes int^ theoven, he took a spoon and begSn to scrape his mixing-bowl. He found that he had quite a good spoonful again—enough for another little cake, in fact. "But there aren't many seeds in it," he said. "I'm afraid it will be a very plain one!" Then he thought of a tiny packet of seeds that the old Goblin Wife had once givein him for doing her a kindness. They looked very like caraway seeds, he remembered, although they were supposed to be grass seeds from the Enchanted Hill. "Do you think I could use' them?" he said to Scrunch. * Birds love grass seeds, you know,- so they couldn't do any harm, and they might make the cake more interesting." "Yes, put them in," said Scrunch. And he took them out of the cupboard where they had been put away and emptied them into Carraway's bowl. So the strange seeds were stirTed into the last little cake, and by that time the cakes already in the oven were don£ Carraway lifted them out carefully and put the last one in. Then they began to set out their shop. They put.the table in the window and found all the prettiest plates they had, and spread the scrunchy rusks and sweet little cakes for all the passers-by to see. And the china money-pig sat importantly on the windowsill ready to take the money. And soon the news began to spread that Scrunch and Carraway had fresh bakery for sale. The folk of Pixie Common simply nocked there, •and about half'an hour after the shop's opening there wasn't a single crumb left, and some disappointed people' had not been able to buy 7 anything at all. ■ . . . "We shall have to make twice as much to-morrow'" said Scrunch gleefully. "The dear old moneypig is full to his snout." And he topped the faithful animal upside down till a pile of shining coins lay on the window-sill. "Now we'll be able to have kites and tops and balloons and things. And I like having a shop too, don't you?" said Carraway. Then he suddenly remembered something. '' Oh, Scrunch I" ..he exclaimed. "My last little cake! It will be burnt to nothing." And he dashed to the oven expecting to find nothing but a black cinder.

But what he really did find astonished them both. In spite of the heat, the cake was not even brown. It was green, for it was covered all over with soft green grass. - ' "The old Goblin Wife's grass seed was magic then," gasped Carraway. "She said it came from the Enchanted Hill, though I've never found such a hill yet." And he lifted the wonderful cake out of the oven. "It-looks more like a mole-hill than a cake,'' said Scrunch. | "Why, the grass is growing! It's? | coming into buds and flowers!" j "Arid fruit!" said Carraway.. j''Oh Scrunch, look! Raisins and; i nuts and wee red cherries and sili ver balls and hundreds atfd thousands and pink sugar rosebuds!". "Things to decorate party-' cakes with!" said Scrunch gleefully. "Oh, .Carraway!" It was quite true. The magic grass grew before their eyes, and as it grew, it burst into the sort of lovely gay things only to be found on the most splendid cakes. Arid when all the grass had blossomed, it stopped growing. " Let's pick some of the things'' /said Carraway, and he tried to take a cherry. But it would not eop£ off. Then Scrunch tried to take a pink rosebud, but that too was fast. ' ' Then we All cut them, off,'-Said Carraway. ''After all,.tiiat is the proper- thingto do with grass, isn't it?" ' v Sothey took a large pair of scis- > sors and cut the enchanted grass, and all the little decorations came off their stalks quite easily. And they were more "delicious to eat th,an a,ny other sweets the two pixies lacl eyertast eel. I think that is the end of the story. Except that they put the little green mound of a cake into the garden for the night, in case it might like silver dew and starshine, being enchanted itself, you know. And the next morning it had a more wonderful crop than before even. And ever aftter that, Scrunch/ and Carraway had all ihe balloons and tops and kites they wanted. But they liked shop-keeping so much they always attended to the baking first. And their greatest treasure was always the Little Green Cake.