TULIPS.

Hutt News, Volume 10, Issue 20, 21 October 1936, Page 8

TULIPS.

Hans van .Hohlt lay in. the great London hospital, bandaged from head to 'foot—the result of a motor smash. Life for him seemed to hold little; he had planned to go back to his home land for the winter but now he was assured of many months of

pain before rising from his siek bed. But as he lay there thinking of his home land a little lady who often visited that hospital came to his bedside, and to his great joy had brought with her a lovely .'bunch of red tulips. Ah, those tulips of self-sacrifice—he had all 'but sacrificed his life for a car load of little invalids in' the great city tout - of whose sacrifice did the tulips ever remind one? Ah—now he remembered. His lovely mother had often told him the tale when he was a little lad.

Long ago when the great modern engineering feats were unknown, the people of Holland ■ were prepared each, year for a great flood! In a certain little village there lived an old gentleman .and his five daughters. Each had her work to do and between them they managed their little farm. For many years they worked till flood time and then went with the other village folk further inland to safety. Each year the message of flood time was sent from farm to farm by a messenger, but one year he failed to come and great disaster followed. Many little homes were ruined. Mothers cried for help to take their babies from the great cruel waters and were swept away ere they could be assisted. Men made rafts and attempted to take their families away. Others tied their children to planks but to no avail for the great waters rolled on and claimed the lives of many. News of the coming tide reached the village where the father and five sisters livcd~-but all too late. There was time however, for some to escape.

"Room for one more," cried the boatman, The old father was very feeble and when the call camc'was unable to answer it. Another took his place. Nearer and nearer came the great tide but the brave were not to be daunted. Quickly they had set to work and after much labour completed a little raft. To this they secured their father and made him comfortable. Brave lads offered to pull him for some miles up the canal to a little village that was ever safe from the floods. ,

He had not gone long when the waves heaved relentlessly on. The sisters seeing that escape was hopeless knelt together to pray for the safe-lceeping of their father. Then as they prayed that a certain shrine might be preserved they were lost in the roaring torrents When the floods had subsided and the grass was fresh and rnw round the little stone cottage of the lost sisters, "people began to come again and rebuild the village. Soon flowers 'began 1o spring up, too, and on the place where the sisters had breathed their last prayers a red tulip bloomed. One of the boys who had taken the father to safety remembered the sisters and ihair prayers and so the story of .solfsacrificc had been handed down through the hundreds of years.