WENDY HUT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 April 1932, Page 9

WENDY HUT

STORIES OF LONG AGO

DERCETO, THE HENNA GIRL

Ever since slie could remember, Derceto had gone into the fields to gather a kind of loosestrife from which her mother pressed the juice and made henna, for the women of ancient Persia dyed their linger nails red with henna.

“Derceto, the Henna Girl" “Derceto ran along the 'roacf and arrived exhausted in the next village.”

Now, when she was thirteen years old, she told her mother that she longed to make attar of roses, the beautiful, secret perfume for which Persia was famous.

“You are Derceto, the henna girl,” replied her mother severely. “I have made henna all my life, and so must you. We have no roses.”

Derceto sighed, and went to gather more loosestrife. She could neither read nor, write, and she did not expect ever to'go beyond the village and fields. Shu was quite happy because there were, some other girls gathering herbs, but she wished she had not thought about attar of roses because it worried her.

As she gathered loosestrife, she remembered the story told about the secret rose perfume. Long ago it was said there lived in Persia a princess so lovely that she was called Sun-among-women, and, when she was married, (lie canal running through her garden was filled with beautiful roses. One evening, when the princess' and her lord walked by the canal, a most exquisite perfume iloated up to them, and they saw what appeared to be a little oil on the top of the water. Now the sun had warmed the water all day and brought the oil out of the roses; the prince skimmed some off, put it in a bottle, and gave it to the lovely princess. That was the first attar of roses ever made.

Derceto was walking in the ditch, thinking of this, when the messenger rode by. The Persians had a wonderful system of carrying letters which, in time, was copied all over the world. They drove posts into the ground to mark certain distances, and at each post stood a man and a horse ready to receive the message or letter from the j man who rode up, and take it on to I the next post. Summer and winter, the messengers went by like flashes of lightning. Looking up from the ditch, Derceto now saw the horse stumble and throw the rider. The girl darted up to the man who told her that his leg was broken, and, thrusting a letter into her hand, asked her to run to the next post. Almost overcome with terror; but knowing how serious' the consequences might he if the messenger failed to reach the post, Derceto ran along the road and arrived exhausted in the next village. There another messenger snatched the letter from 'her, and left her lying near the post. Fortunately, a Persian merchant of perfumes rode by that evening. Hearing that a poor henna girl had brought a letter to the post, and was still lying in the road weeping because she had not the strength to walk home, he carried her back on his horse. And soon afterwards Derceto went into his household to learn the secret of making attar of roses! CLOUDS It’s grand to stand upon the hill, Against the clear blue sky, And watch the piles of soft-grey clouds Go helter-skelter by. So fast they come, and faster go. They take your breath away; The mighy armies of the mist, Decked proud in bold array. And as you stand and gaze up there, All sorts of things you sec— A band of jolly giant-men Rolls by upon the spree! Their mighty limbs and swollen heads , Are clear as anything; And in the wind across the plain j You’ll hear the song they sing. |

And next the clouds will roll away To show a magic land, A place of make-believe, that all May see who understand. For everyone who likes can view These sights, as they Hash by Though stodgy folk just laugh and say: < “Absurd—it’s only sky!” THE TINKITES’ TOYSHOP MAKING A ROCKING HORSE This jolly rocking horse will provide plenty of fun for your small brother or sister. Deal boards, threequarters of an inch thick, are used to make it, and the shaped parts are simply glued and screwed together. The first parts to make are the rockers, A, which are two feet six I inches long, the bottom edges curved j to a radius of three feet three inches, |as indicated in the diagram. Mark the curved line on one piece of wood with the aid of a length of string and a pencil, and, after sawing and planing the edge to the curved line, use it for

marking out the other rocker. For the front upright, 13, cut a piece of wood to the sizes given in diagram C, and round the top corners. The back upright is the same width, Jjut one inch shorter, as indicated by the dotted line. Across each piece, at twelve inches from the bottom end, screw a strip of one inch by threequarter inch wood to carry the seat. Carefully mark the positions of the uprights on the inside of the rockers, and bore two screw holes for fixing each joint. Fix the two uprights to one rocker first, as shown in diagram D, and then screw on the other rocker. • t. The seat, E, which is eleven inches long and six inches wide, is fitted between the uprights and screwed to the crosspieces on which it rests. The footrest is twelve inches long and two, inches wide, and is screwed to the rockers.

'l'he head and tail parts must now b e marked out on two pieces of wood divided up into inch squares, as shown in diagram G. Cut out the parts with a pad-saw, and, after smoothing the edges with a rasp and glasspaper, glue and screw them in place. Cut the part F to fit between the uprights, underneath the seat, and fix it in position by three screws driven in through the seat. A coat of bright enamel, in one or two different colours, will give the horse a smart appearance. And when the paint is quite dry, the scat can be lightly padded, and a bridle added, as shown in the first diagram.—The Hut Carpenter.

WENDY’S'LITTLE NEEDLEWOMEN A MIMOSA-TRIMMED THAIR-BAGv \ Wouldn’t mother he pleased if you made her a chair-back decorated with golden mimosa and its soft green lea ves? You will need three-quarters of, a yard of linen crash fifteen inches wide, 'fiirii in a wee hem along the edge that is to be the top, and a fairly wide one along the opposite edge. This wider hem is turned to the right side of the material, and sewn down with buttonhole stitching in yellow wool. Now work another line of buttonhole stitching on top of the first, but going the opposite way, as explained in diagram D; this gives fc rather an unusual edging for the trimmed end of the chair-back. . Now draw a big spray of mimosa on

to the crash above the fancy hem. Sketch it out on paper first, and transfer it to the crash by laying a sheet of carbon paper underneath, and going over the lines with a steel knitting needle. Work the stems and leaves in back-stitch, using green wool; diagram A shows the back-stitch. Then work the mimosa flowers in yellow wool satin-stitch, as shown in diagram B. Diagram C gives a “close-up” of the embroidery. It couldn’t be much simpler, could it? But the finished chair-back will look really lovely, and you can use the same design to trim a cushion cover or a table runner. — Wendy’s Dressmaker.

MIKE AND THE MOUNTAIN Mike the monkey had a lovely idea —copied from Sonny, the little boy who lived on the edge of the junglo. Sonny seemed to enjoy the idea so much that Mike thought he would, too. So Mike hunted about for a strong piece of wood, and this he polished on both sides by rubbing it with a big stone. ‘'Whatever arc. you doing?” asked Prim. the parrot. "A!i. this is my idea,” grinned Mike. “I only want a little mountain, and then you’ll see something.” Soon the news spread all over the jungle that Mike had got an idea, and wanted a little mountain, and crowds of jungle folk collected to see what he was going to do with these two peculiar things. Well, Mike dragged the “idea” after liim on the nice flat grass when lie went to look for a mountain. and all the jungle folk followed. "My benk'!” : cried Pam suddenly. “There’s a mountain, Mike! It must ha vo grown up in the night.” It was just a little hill, but Mika said it would do nicely, and told them all to' stand- round and watch him. Then he scrambled to the top of the bump in the ground, sat on the polished piece of wood, and told them to see liim slide. Away he went, like Sonny did on his sleigh,.and they all shouted, / pud Mike called “bravo!”—and sud-' denly the hill rose up in the air! It was Bumpus the boa constrictor! He ' had heard that Mike wanted a mountain, so he had made himself into one, covered himself with grass, and hoped for a nice nionkey dinner! Mike only left the “idea” and a bit of his tail in Bumpus’ mouth, but he was cured of copying Sonny, and he never went near a mountain again. “Thank goodness wo haven't got ideas,” said the jungle folk, as poor panting Mike sadly looked at the bitten end of his tail. •>

OUR SWEET-MAKING CORNER SIMPLE CHOCOLATE FUDGE Take four penny bars of plain chocolate, and grate them up as finely as possible. Now put one pound of granu- | lated sugar into a saucepan, with half ! a teacupful of milk, the grated choco- ; late, and ’ a piece of butter the size of ! a'walnut. Stir together over low heat till the sugar has completely dis- . solved and there are no lumps in the : chocolate, but be careful not to splash • the sides of the saucepan too mu6h I ancl be. sure the heat is low. j bring the fudge to the boil; . boil for five minutes, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, then re- | move ’the-'saucepan from- the fire. Al- : low the mixture to settle down, and ! beat it: with the: wooden spoon till j the whole becomes thick and collects in a mass. Turn it on to a buttered dish, pat into shape, and cut it into nice little wedges before it is quite cold. A few nuts of almonds may be added to the fudge when you reinovrt the saucepan from the fire, or evert some seedless raisins, but it. is quite as delicious plain. TINk’S CROSS-WORD PUZZLE I wonder' if this week’s picture reminds you of an ornament you some- - times see in a garden? Remember that the face of a clock is called a “dial,” and then you should have no difficulty in discovering the hidden word which the picture represents. ACROSS " ■ 1. Soon. 7. Part of verb “to be’L ■ 8. Roman numeral. v 9. Meadow. j 10. Pronoun. A 12. One of an ancient race. 14. Ripped. 16. Girl’s name. 18. Favourite. 1 19. Hidden word. 23. Transact. 24. Roman numeral for 150. 26. Shines at night. 27. Not up. ' ' ’ DOWN . j 2. Birds, i 3. . . . and pepper, j 4. Before. | 5. Tidy. j 6. Glossly-leaved shrub, j 8. Frozen water. . ill. A collection. •*, ■ - 13. To praise. • ! ■ 15. Precious stone. 17. Short for “editor”. . •• 20. Mid-day. 21. Covered with 8 down. 22. A limb. , 25. Number.