FOR THE TINIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19798, 19 November 1927, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOR THE TINIES.

RICKETY RED4EG.

BX WHEELER KENT.

Oi course, having : ' brothers. or l staters is one of the jolliest things evfer, and Marigold had neither. Blit do you think she was lonely? Well, she wasn't, for being a kind-hearted little girl she made many friends. One of these was Rickety Bed-Leg. Every day Marigold brushed the crumbs from the table into a brown ptipet bag, Then, when she went down to the beach to play she took the bag With her and, sitting on a rock, scattered the crumbs among the hungry ■ sea-birds. She was rather aftaid of some of the big ones with their shrill cries and great, flapping Wings, but the sttiauer gulls she loved. Their heads and bodies were a pure white, their grey Wings were boldly edged With black, and Marigold especially liked their pretty red beaks arid legs. One morning, as she Was making a shell garden on the sand, she saw one of these gulls hover over a curling wave then, alighting on a rock, try to balance itself on one slim, red leg. It reminded her so much of the rickety table in the kitchen that she afs once nained him Rickety Red*l^|. At first Marigold thought his other leg must be tucked up out of sight because she had often seen the rooster in the yard stand upon one sturdy leg while the otte was hidden away among his feathers. It was only When Rickety began hopping about, on the sand that she discovered he had only one leg. , " Oh, poor little thing," She said, " I do wish I hsdn't given all tn|r. ctiiinbs away. Bbt perhaps Mummy will let fee have some more," and she rati back to "the house to get some. After that she saved some crumbs for him every time, and he soon learned to come rignt lip to her, not the littlest bit afraid. "1 do wish you could talk to me. Rickety," she said one day, as she lay on the warm sand listening to the lap, lap* lapping of the waves. " You don't seem to mind at all having only one leg;" Somehow she was not surprised to hear him answering her. " No, I don't mind mtich. I have learned to manage with one quite nicely. I was very young when I lost my leg in a trap which some boys had set oh a I cliff-top."

" What horrid boys! " exclaimed Mari* gold. "It was really my own fault," said Rickety. "My mother told me not to ventura far away, but 1 tried to show her how clever I was." " And what did she say when you lost your poor leg?" " She was Very sorry, ' But,' said she, 4 you must learn to look after yourself, and not depend on your brothers and sisters for your meals. They will bo kept busy finding their own. And even though you have lost a leg you must always be cheerful, for the life of a bird is a short and a merry one.' " " You brave little thing," said Marigold, and her eyes, which had been shut fast, sprang wide ofjeu. She sat up with a start. Surely, oh, surely, She hadn't been asleep! She looked around her, and there was Rickety only a yard away. " You really did say all that didn't yon, Rickety? " asked the littls girl. Rickety's eyes were very, very bright as ho iooked at her and nodded his smooth, white head. " I'm so glad," said Marigold, and she ran off eagerly to tell mummy all about