THE WEIGHING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19298, 10 April 1926, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE WEIGHING.

BY OLIVE BROCAS.

There was quite a flutter of subdued excitement in the sweet humble homo of the Hemes when Mrs. Marksman alighted from her luxurious car, and came up the trim garden path. Had rlio not written asking if she might have one of the girls for a helpful little companion ? In her beautiful home—oh, how lovely that would be! When a girl has lost her father, she is .glad of a chanco to help her mother keep the home; when it comes to four in the same box, or under the s?ime robf, it's pretty hard. Of the four, which _would it bo? They said that they felt they were properly in the balance this time, though each candidly thought that the choice lay between Elsa and Myrtle. Elsa, the eldest, tall and pretty, rattled the piano noisily that morning—practice went on whoever came or went in that house —as her thoughts ran on future grandeur rather than on the lesson beforo her; while Judy, the youngest, and everybody's darling, dreamed on the back steps in the sunshine, forgetful of the darning in her lap. Myrtle sang and ironed in the kitchen; then came Coral, | shy always, to take her turn at the piano, ! where she sat and stumbled painstakingly through her music. While sipping tea and talking in the wee sitting-room with her hostess, Mrs. Marksman was also listening with interest, apparently, to the lively noises of the household; then suddenly she said, "Do let it be Coral, Mrs. Heme! I would love to have her!" The mother looked surprised. " Why, Coral is the least lively of them all," she answered, " and, really, much slower than Elsa. I am sure that any of the others would get on better—you said you wanted brightness, you know." However, to the surprise of them all, it was indeed a starry-eyed Coral who was tucked in and whirled off in the great

car. And do you know why ? I really wondered a bit, myself, until one day, when they were with me in my garden, Mrs. Marksman said to her husband, " I was right, John; the patient, persevering way in which litlto Coral went over and over her pieces that day, just showed me the worth of her plodding nature. Certainly, she is a bit slower than Elsa, but speed isn't everything; and she is always calm, and that it is that cheers us so wonderfully, John. And Coral doesn't easily give up, as I have often seen others of her age do. You always say that the steady plodder wins every time, and I know that you are right."