CHILDREN’S CORNER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 August 1926, Page 9

CHILDREN’S CORNER

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

Lots of people believe Hint “Mary means tins and “Mary” means that---usually unite silly things! ‘Mary ’.(On • you lucky girls who bear that, proudest name of all names!) just means —“of the house.”

Far away in sunny Italy, on a stone by what the ancient llomans called tho Appian Wav, is engraved the record of a “Mary.” ‘ It is held to be the sweetest and most, tremendous record of a woman known to history. Yet all it says is—“ She kept the house, and spun wool.” The name Mary is also rendered —“Blessed.”

“William” is a very very old name. It means “Shining helm”—is, not that strange' But •remember this, and if you are called William you’ll feed awfully proud i The “shining holm” (or helmet) was usually that of the leader of soldiers in battle and adventure. Among the Vikings and Saxons these leaders wore gleaming bronze helmets, sometimes with huge silver horns standing out from them- You understand now how much this simple Christian name means?

“Dorothy”—that is. one of the sweetest names in all the world. “Child of Peace” ; “Gift of God”—it means both those beautiful things. Could a girl wish for a more wonderful name? And the sound of it is rather remarkable, is it not ? Because it is all round “o’s” and soft “til’s”, it sounds—well—just peaceful. By the way, have you ever played that! lovely game with words? I mean, pulling them to syllables and finding out just why some sound so beautiful and others not so good. “Dorothy” is one of tho tit vest examples of wordrbuilding in any language. It came from ancient Greece.

“Peter” is a quaint old name. It means “rock”. . Tho ancient people when they said “petrus” meant just that; You have the same old word used to make the newer word “petrified” which, as you know, means “turned to stone,” or rock. So if vour name is Peter you must live up to it by being rock-like and steady, no matter what happens! TO MAKE A PLATE RACK The plate rack shown in Fig. 1. is quite an important looking affair, isn't it? Y'ot any Billy boy can make one with very little trouble, if he will follow carefully the Hut Carpenter’s instructions. ,

You require twelve strips of wood, each one and a quarter inches wide and one inch thick, cut to the following lengths: Four pieces 27 inches long for the uprights at each end of tho rack: four pieces 30 inches long for tho horizontals at top and bottom of the rack; two pieces 25 inches long for the intermediate uprights; and two pieces 21 inches long for the middle horizontals. Take care to keep the Tmds perfectly square. First make, up the frame of the rack. To do this take two of the 27-inch strips and join them together by means of a piece of board, 3 inches wide and 7 inches long, at the top, and a tapered

piece of board 7 inches long, 2 inches wide at tho front and 4 inches wide at the back, at the bottom (Fig. 2). Fix these joining boards so that they project one inch at the back of the frame; treat the other two 27-inch pieces in the same way, to make the other side of the frame, and then fjt in the 30-inch horizontals (A. Fig. 1) so that you have a box-like frame. Drill holes in the four horizontal strips to take rods about half an inch in diameter. NoW/ fit in the intermediate upright's thfe ptieces of wood 26 inches long (B. Fig. 1) and to these and the right hand uprights fix tho horizontals Cin Fig. I. Screw all these pieces firmly together, keeping Them, exactly in place as shown in Fig.

Now drive round wooden rods, about lynches in diameter into the holes you hav-c drilled in the horizontals (A). Cheap wooden curtain rods will serve very well for these. The rods can be fixed firmly by nailing, but the better plan is to wedge them as shown in Fig. 3. This is done by making a saw cut across the end of the rod and driving a thin wedge into it while the rod is in place. Finish the plate rack by screwing a flat board to the top, and rouud off the front and edges neatly. Fix the rack firmly in place on the scullery wall over the sink by means of strong brackets screwed to plugs of wood driven into holes in the wall. Screw the rack to the brackets and also fix it at the top if it seems at all insecure.

THE SILVER KNIGHT When little ragged Bob was tired, of sailing his chunk of wood on the round pond, h.e would watch for the Silver Knight. Of course, ether people did not call him a Silver Knight, but Bob did ! He knew all about Kinghts, because his teacher had told him ; and he pretended ho was one himself. He would walk proudly through the Park carrying a stick, which lie pretended was a sword, and he helped every one in distress. Some days lie would pick up as many as five babies who bad fallen over their own feet; and he captured many wild animals! These animals were fat dogs who ran away

from their mistresses, and trailed their nice bright chains on the ground. But Bob was always at the pond in time to see the Silver Knight come gliding through the'trees, his armour glittering in the sun. How swift and beautiful he was! One day a 3 Bob watched the Knight Sweeping down the path, he was surprised to seo that his hero did not stop, but went straight towards the pond. Somebody shouted ! Away dashed Bob, and was just in time to prevent the Silver Knight from falling headlong into the water. “Are you hurt?” asked a man with a nice face, who picked Bob up. “My little boy and his bicycle would have been in the pond if you had not saved them.” “Not a bicycle,” said Bob quickly. “I call it the Silver Knight, ’cos it’s so beautiful.” The nice man and the little boy looked at one another and nodded. “We’ve often seen you watching the Silver Knight,” raid the man, “and as we’re going away, wo should be so glad if you would take him to live with you.’ At first, Bob simply could not believe it! But now that beautiful bicycle is his very own, and flic little ragged hoy is one of flic happiest knights in the whole wide world.