Woman’s

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2076, 17 March 1922, Page 3

Woman’s

ON EMU CREEK. By Steele Uudd. (All Eights Reserved.) (To be continued). CHAPTER XIII (contd.) SOME NATURE STUDY. f / Once again the teacher woke the silence and solicitude with a forlorn coo-ee. Those yahoos in the trees never, in the lives before, experienced such a strange and trying sensation. None dare lift his head to look into the face of the other. ‘'God bless my heart and soul!” they heard him moan; “whatever has become of them! What shall I do?” Starting off again he crossed an old sheep-yard that had long been in disuse, and headed for a belt of thick forest timber. “Oh, my ‘side!” Andy Drygrass broke out; “if he hadn’t gone the instant he did I'd had to let go and fall right on him.” His companions choked and gurgled, and said “they would have had to, too. Then they laughed together like jackasses, and "reckoned it was the best fun ever they had in their lives. In vain the teacher kept up the search, and amidst red and crimson streaks along the sky, the sun started to go down. Then giving up hope, he began retracing his steps, and instead of returning to the school, got lost: became hopelessly, irretrievably bushed! Meanwhile ,Mrs Wimtaiepip, > who was left in charge, when four o clock came, let the scholars out. All of them, closely followed in dribs and drabs by the fifteen absconders, soon reached their respective homes. Night, dark and cheerless, came on, but no Mr Wimblepip. At 8 o'clock, Mrs Wimblepip, natless, breathless, pale and almost overcome with alarm, hastened to Duff s place and asked if Splinter was home. “Oh, long ago, Mrs Wimblepip,” and Titt and Mrs Duff stared in surprise. "Long ago?” Mrs Wimblepip echoed. “Oh, dear dear!” and dropping into a chair, fainted, and looked as if her end had come. The Duffs grew frantic. They shook her, pleaded with her to speak, and broke into lamentations. Not until they gave her water to drink and poured some down her back did Mrs Wimblepip revive again, and state her trouble. Splinter, listening through the kitchen door, took time by the forelock, and in fear and trembling, prepared his defence. For the first time in his life, he seriously explored the regions of thought. His father called him, and in he slunk, his hands twitching. his lip quivering, a tragic stave in his eye. “Here,” Titt questioned, “was you one o’ them who went out with Mr Wimblepip to-day?” Splinter was. “Where did yous go?” Splinter told him (in part). “How was it Mr Wimblepip didn't come home with you?” Splinter didn’t know. “Where did lie go? Did he stop behind, or go somewhere be himself, or what? You ought to know, and mind you tel! th’ truth, or by cripes, I’ll kill y’!” * “Me and Tom Dyer and Joe Shuttlewood,’ Splinter stammered, "left him with all th’ others, an’ —-ah’ —” “Well? Yes? An’ what?” Splinter lost the thread of his defence. and was ransacking his paralysed brain to find it. “Can’t y’ remember?” “Oh. you must know, Splinter," anxiously and kindly from his mother. "Yair.s!” Splinter spluttered. “Well, tell Mrs Wimblepip!” Titt yelled, “an' don't be standin’ there lookin’ like a jolly goat!” ‘At.’ we went to get a yaller flower,” Splinter remembered. “A yaller flower”—and ho faltered again. “You told us that before! By Christmas. young man. look out for yourself if you’ie tellin' any lies! Do you know what all this means, do y’, eh?” Looking into Splinter’s face; "it might mean— murder!” Mrs Wimblepip screamed; Splinter hoi owed. “Don’t Tighten the boy, Titt!” M’’s Duff protested. “Let him tell what he knows about It in his own way.” “How can he tell anything in any way. when he’s bellerin’ the way he is ?” “Yes. of course,” Mrs Duff agreed: “but he’s nervous about it, when I’m sure he has no reason to be.” Then softly and encouragingly to Splinter. ‘You were going to tell as about the yellow flower, Son? Yes? Don't be afraid’ no one will hurt you.” "One growin’ out of a rock that Tom knew about,” Splintered blubbered, “an’ —an’ we was to bring it back to —(sob) —to him ” “To who?” Titt interrupted. “To (sob) old Roger.” “What? Who? By cripes, me noble, "To the teacher,” and Splintered blubbered harder by way of apology. "And did you bring it to* him?” from Mrs Duff; “now don't cry about it.” ”N—No; he was gone when we came ba,ck, an’- —an’ we couldn’t find him.” “They have done something terrible to my husband —I know they have!” Mrs Wimblepip wept, “my intuition tells me there lias been foul play! Oh, why did he ever come to such a school —such an ill-bred, barbarous school!” “Don’t go on like that, Mrs Wimblepip.” Mrs Duff said, "Mr Wimblepip will turn up all right, never you fear. It won’t surprise me if lie’s at home when you go back—not in the least," and she sat down and put her arms around her. “And did y’ look for him?” Titt asked further of Splinter. “We waited for them all to come back, and when they didn’t come, Tom Dyer said they must have gone home, and then we come home.” “I see.” Titt reflected wisely. “Oh, Splinter is not to blame,” M"s Duff asserted, positively, “he and To i Dyer and Joe Shuttlewood merely dhl what Mr Wimblepip told them to dc, isn’t that so, son?” "Y—yes, that’s is,” Splinter lied. “I didnt see it that way at first,”

[“Annette invites correspondence on subjects of interest to ladles, such as social events, weddings, etc., or any other matters suitable for publication in “Woman’s World.”]

Titt saidi apolog'etically; ‘‘but I understand now." “I never saw it any other way,” from Mrs Duff; "and I knew my boy wouldn’t tell a lie.” "At that rate,” Titt summed up, “Mr Wimblepip must have went home with some of them others. Perhaps one of ’em took sick or got sunstruck, and he carried him home ?” It was a brilliant and timely suggestion. It came just when Mrs Wimblepip was working up for another faint. (To be continued.) Mr and Mrs J. Fenwick, with their daughter, Miss Doris Fenwick, lei t Napier last week for England ( where they propose spending some months sight-seeing. Miss Fenwick i& a champion tennis player, and with Miss Bain of Christchurch, Avho is also going Home, she may enter for the all-Eng-land tennis championships at Wimbledon. A shawl effect is to be seen in many of the newest drapings on gowns and also on wraps. A very smart wrap may be made by cutting a large square of cloth, edging it with fur or any trimming preferred, and turning one corner back to form a deep collar, the point of which should be below the waist-line. This may be worn open, simply held in place by the arms or with one end thrown over the shoulder like a Spanish cloak. Two weddings of interest in the theatrical world have taken place quite recently, says a Sydney paper. One of the brides was Miss Maud Miles, a well-known member of the J. C. Williamson Royal Comic Opera Company, who married Captain Donald Cameron (late A.1.F.), of West Melbourne. Miss Maggie Foster, the clever young violinist of the Fuller Company, is also retiring from the stage at the close of her present contract, owing to her recent marriage to Mr W. Seville, purser of the Maheno. The absurdity and brutality of the new immigration law was strikingly illustrated when a Polish woman who for the lust eleven years has lived in Chicago, landed at New York with four children, one of them an infant three months old. The mother and three children were allowed to land, but the baby was refused admission and orderccD to be deported because the quota from Poland for the month had been exhausted. Unless the President interferes, the ruling of the immigration oflicials will stand. The retirement of Miss Hutchison, senior supervisor at the Dunedin Telephone Exchange, after a period of service in the Post and Telegraph Department extending over some thirty years, was made the occasion 01 a pleasant send-off gathering recently, when members of the exchange staff met to bid her farewell and to wish heu an enjoyable time on her trip to the old Country, The district telegraph engineer (Mr Veitch). on behalf of the staff, presented Miss Hutchison with a travelling rug and other useful articles. Reference was made to the efficient service which Miss Hutchison had given during her earlier career as an operator, and later as supervisor. The) decree* has been issued by Paquin. says the fashion writer in the “Gentlewoman” that all sorts of brilliant colours arc to bo used for Riviera fashion. It, is', says the writer, with a sigh of relief that one hears the reign of black is ended. Our functions and parties were becoming positively funereal. Everywhere black. It was deadly and uninteresting, and though, I admit, exceptionally smart for occasicftis, yet it was certainly being overdone. Well, now it’s ended. Dame Fashion can now work one of her dramatic miracles that please her so much , and switch the world of mourning into a world of hope and spring. “What then is to be the colour?” I ask of Madame, who has so strongly decried black. “Well,” she replica thoughtfully, “there will be many now shades. The spring materials arc wonderful. Ravishing embroideries in Dresden-like colours, original and odd, will make many delightful model frocks. Only models, though for the early season, and for the others, onion shade, that warm, golden brown shade, of a Spanish onion skin, will be the-favourite colour. Reseda green and putty shades will be strong rivals, but white will be the queen.”