THE WENDY HUT

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6542, 25 February 1928, Page 7

THE WENDY HUT

to life?” “I would,” murmured Kitty, but she had very little faith in a block of stone. Then a strange thing happened. The doorstep split up and Kitty saw fish bones, fern leaves, tests of all descriptions, shells of all sizes, w r eo creatures with and without legs, seeds, and many other things for which she had no names. Then the teeth became animals she had never seen; the ferns turned into trees she had never dreamed of; .a bluo and lovely sea was rocking round her, and all tho bones were fishes. “And the w r eo creatures are swimming,” Xsried Kitty, “and tho seeds are getting into seaweed, and there are hundreds of little white specks like dust! Oh, doorstep, where are you?” "I a tho doorstep,”-said a voice which came from every one of these creatures, and tho plants and the sea itself. “Don’t be silly,” laughed Kitty. "Watch mo turn to a doorstep,” said the voice. And it seemed to Kitty that thousands of years passed, and tho sea dried up- and the wee creatures became chalk,, and the bones whitened, and tho forests vanished and everything got cemented together, and there was tho doorstep. “Some doorsteps are true fairytales," thought Kitty.

Wendy’s Little Dressmakers

. A PLAY SUIT FOR BABY BOY. My dear children, You can make tho dearest little play suit for Baby Boy out of about a yard and a quarter of casement cloth in any colour you fancy. Measure Baby from his shoulders to just above Ids knees, take a piece of material twice this length and wido enough to give him plenty of room; fold and cut it as shown in Diagram A. Diagram B. shows the garment when laid out flat before It is sewn; you will notice that the left shoulder must me cut across so that Baby 1 can get in and out easily. Sew up the side seams, and bind all the other edges with cotton braid in a contrasting colour. Sew three •press-studs on tho shoulder openings, and then sew three fair-sized buttons

on the inside of tho garment at the back lower edge. Now you must work three buttonholes to correspond oh the iront lower edge. Whenthey’re fastened together, little trouser legs will be formed! The big patch pocket conies next. This should be about eight inches across, and five inches deep. It is trimmed with a quaint fat puppy-dog motif, cut out of different coloured cloth and appliquod on,with.the buttonhole stitch. It doesn’t■* matter how funny tho pup looks, Baby will love it all the more! You must tack it in position on tho pocket before you linally stitch it. Then, when you’ve bound the pocket-top with braid, you can sew it on to the front of the romper—and its finished! .WENDY’S DRESSMAKER. The Chest in the Attic. Sometimes on quiet afternoons I love upstairs to run; For in the attic hid away Arc memories of yesterday, I know them every one. In Granny’s chest, that is so old A hundred things arc laid; A fiouncy frock, a buckled shoo. A crumpled wreath of flowers, blue, And many another trinket, too, That once adorned a maid! This dainty shawl of cashmere wool My Granny’s Granny wore

iiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiii I'jidii tier shoulders while and sweet; Jl* r yown that hid her tiny feet. Trailed yards upon the floor. And see! this coat of velveteen Great-Grandad used to wear;

With linen ruffles, white as snow At wrist and throat, ho used to go To court Great-Grandmama you know (What fun if I’d been there!) Among the clothes l sit and dream, Until X seem to see The attic fill with misty hosts Of friendly, long-ago-day ghosts, Who stand and smile at me, Great-Grand-Mama, Great-Grandad’s there, And heaps of others too: “You’ve come,” 1 ask, “to play with me?’’ I cannot stay, because you see. Downstairs the bell has rung for tea! I musn’t stop with you!’’ A Model Worker We have always been told that the bee is a buesy little insect, but how busy, few of us realise. It visits as many as -7 flowers in one minute! Even if the average number of visits were 15 a minute, that would mean 90(1 calls an hour, and 7,1100 a day, as a worker bee wormks for eight hours a day! It takes about 125,000 heads of red clover to yield two pounds of honey, and in order to get get this honey, 7i mlllin flower tubes must be probed. When fully laden o, bee carries to its hive a load of honey equivalent to twice its own weight. ‘Some’ worked! Tinker Bell Talks ABOUT BILLIKIN’S NEW SUIT. My Dears! Do look at the Billikins! Isn’t ho a joy? He's wearing the Now Black Suit with the Three White Patches which Wendy made

him. He was supposed to have had it for Christmas, but somehow or other it didn’t get finished in time. So he was up bright and early on New Year’s Day, waiting on Wendy’s doormat to receive the noble gift from her hands! And isn't it a noble gift, indeed? iiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimimiimiiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiii:

iMisitiiiiiiimiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiminiiiimiiimniniiiiiiiimiMiii Wil lyou LOOK at the fit of It, and the size of It, and the altogether amazing appearance of it? As I told you, our Billikins is inclined to grow a little fat those days; I v»""’ think ho oats too many lion honey-cakes and sugar-buns! of course, when a black goblin beg.ns to grow fat, it is rather hard to make

a suit that is likely to fit him—’speolj ally when it‘s a secret and you can't try it on I Judging from appearances, Wendy thought he would bo something like a Baby Elephant by the time the suit was finished —even the kindest of you must admit that it is a little large! But the patches are there all right- You can’t miss them, can you? Almost hit you, they do! ' Wendy is laughing so much over the whole affair that she simply can’t pull herself together to alter the suit. So the Hut Dressmaker has carried •it off and is at the mooment sticking pins into it (and into the Goblin, too, I’m afraid, judging by the shouts that arc coming from her ‘fiting room’) and has promised to reduce it to something like ordinary size by tomorrow. But on no account are the Three White Patches to bo disturbed. Our Billikins Is very firm on this point He says he’s worked hard for those Patches, which are to show the world that ho has honestly tried to ‘grow good', since he has been in the Wendy Hut! And so I must leave him —and you —for the moment, because Wendy is still gurgling with laughter, and has reached the pitch when she can do nothing but flop in a chair and wipe her eyes. So there’s no supper for us to-night unless I tuck up my sleeves and prepare it. And when I start preparing supper things fly! So I shouldn’t be surprised If there’s more fun in the Little Old Hut before we go to bed! Love to all my bonny bairns, TINK.