Blue-Birds Corner.

Hutt News, Volume 12, Issue 39, 22 March 1939, Page 8

Blue-Birds Corner.

MAIL TIME

SWEETS, PLEASE!

COMPETITIONS.

| Dear Boys and Girls, — The other day I met • Patsy Anne. Patsy Anne looks like a fairy. She has blue eyes and flaxen hair, and is always dancing round, but most interesting of all she has a Dream Book, in which she writes l\er dreams or as much of-them as she can remember. She has a space for each day, because she doesn't alway remember what she has been dreaming immediately she wakes up, and I must tell you they are an odd assortment of adventures! Sometimes our dreams are affected by what we have been eating ! Sometimes by. what we have been reading, and very often by- what we have been thinking during the day or just before we go off to sleep. I did not' ask Patsy Anne what might have caused this dream, but it amused her so much every time she thought of it, that I thought you-might like to hear about it, too. "We were going along the Golden Road," said Patsy Anne, "It was cool and shady, but here and there the sun shone through the trees and reflected from the hills into the little stream that slid , along beneath the willows and pines. All at once we came upon some pirates iii gay costumes —they seemed to have joined the Golden Road by a track through the broom on the left hand side of them. One was very grouchy, and how the others teased him about it! " 'Ah, just a little longer, Petro,' said their leaden, 'and you shall have your treasure, ay, treasure enough for anyone.' " 'What is this treasurer asked the discontented one.' 'Is it gold, jewels, clothing, spices?' " 'Wait and see, wait and see,' replied the leader. "Turning a bend in the road we came to a rise, and decided to rest there for a while, but the pirates hurried on. Suddenly there was a peal of laughter, then another, and another, till we all laughed too: it was so catching; 'Let's go on,' urged one of our party, then what do you think we discovered?" "I'm sure 1 don't know," 1 replied. "The pirates had taken their discontented mate to what they called the Laughter Pool. They said that if you looked into it you would sec a reflection ■of your own face, as jolly-looking as ever it could be, and whenever you looked at your reflection in a pool again, anywhere, you would smile, a really infectious smile, that would be passed on by everyone who caught it!" "And where do you think that Laughter Pool might really be?" I asked this radiant little Patsy Anne. "I'm sure I don't know," she replied, "but I told Julie about it, and we look in every pool now, and laugh—even rain pools" on the roadside." It seems no wonder, then, does it, that this little girl always appears to be happy—what a lot of happy faces there would be if this dream were really true —and why should it not be? Joyous dreams and golden days, BLUEBIRD.

Nobody in the village could have been Brisker than Captain Stevens, holding sway Over his booty when the mail came in. Beaming behind his wicket every day At five o'clock, the job of sorting done, He'd hand our letters out with quite an air Of seeming to have saved a special one For every single person waiting there. His guardianship was. not alone concerned With coloured stamps and post cards. Such as lie Are full of older- wisdom, having learned Sonidthing more useful than geography— How Athens, Cairo, Singapore, and Rome May all be closer than you'd guess to home! Leslie Nelson Jennings.

Long, long ago, at the very dawn of history, sweets were unknown. Think of that. would a world be lite without sweets? There was never a time when children did not want sweet things' to eat, but in those far-

v THF VAY TO HWWWESS IS \\ - Br ' MAKJW OTHERS HAPPY.

away days they liad to be- satisfied with fruit, honey, and berries. Long before printing was invented—over three' thousand years ago, in fact—a writer told of "vendors of honey . balls, spiced seeds, and fruits sweetened with a coating of honey." The first people to make sweets were the Egyptians, • and the Greeks soon followed their example. They used to eat honey balls, and. highly coloured, preserved flower petals. So did the Romans, but they improved on earlier recipes. Anyone who could invent new flavourings, or combinations of ingredients, was a very important personage in a Roman community. When archaeologists were excavating the ruins of Herculaneum, they, jactually Ifound traces of a confectioner's shop, with moulds and implements practically the same as those used in the most modern sweet factories. . The people of the countries where sugar cane grew had, of course, always known how good it was to eat. They used to chew itj and sometimes they mixed it with other things to make it into comfits. It was not until the seventh century, "however, that sugar cane< found its way, through-Cliina, to Persia, where the first sugar-refining works were built. 0 As time went on, sugar came became known all over the world. The first consignment. of, cane imported by Britain came from Venice in 1319 and weighed 100,0001bs.! Everyone wanted to try the new sweetmeat, but few could afford to buy it, so the confectioners set to work to bring down'the price. But even then it was still too costly, and for a long time sweets remained a rare luxury, the children of poor people hardly ever seeing, far less tasting, them. Nowadays, we are glad to say, everything has changed. Sweets are made by the ton, instead of by the ounce as they used to be. Everyone buys them, and _ even the cheapest kinds are bigger, better, prettier, and purer than the ones kings and queens used to eat in olden days! SftW.

Test your knowledge. Underline the answer wliieh you think is correct. (1) The Battle of Hastings was fought in 1915, 1066, 1603, 1775. (2) Samarang is in China, Tibet, the Malay Archipelago. (3) There are eight, live, seven bones in the wrist. (4) Airedale is the name of a terrier, town, river. (5) Lobelia is an .iceplant, border flower, flowering shrub. (6) Bonaparte fought for Bulgaria, America, France. (7) Lydia is- a country in Northern Africa, a girl's name, a kind of fruit. (8) Ophelia was a character Shakespeare, Tennyson, Spenser. (9) Beethoven was a master poet, pianist, painter. (10) Mercury was a god ot Greece, India;*".Egypt. (11) Biege is the name of an animal, colour, action in warfare. . . (12) The sugar in milk is called fructose, sucrose, lactose. PROUD MISTER POLLIWOG There was a little Polliwog Who had-a lovely tail, And he was very proud of it And said to Mister Snail: "Oh, don't you think it's beautiful 1 ? Oh, don't you think it's fine 1 ? Oh, don't you wish you had a tail As wonderful as mine?" "Just wait," said Mister Snail, "Until you change into a frog, And then you won't have any tail, Proud Mister Polliwog!" Then Mister Polli waved his tail And blinked his eyes with rage. He said, "I'll always kdep my tail, No matter what my age!" But one day, Mister Snail came down To find the polliwog. Though Mister Polli was not there, He found a wee, green frog. "Oh, Mister Snail, I find you're right. For tails'l have no use now, And one who boasted of a tail, I should think just a goose, now!" —Marian Parker.