OUR GIRLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR GIRLS.

PIXIE WINS THROUGH.

By SHEILA QUINX, Mount Eden vase 15)

Tho bush was just awakening; animal life in the forest was stirring, and the littla feathered songsters were bursting into song as Pixie set out through the trees in tho early winter mprn. Whistling gaily, sho skipped along over the damp undergiowth. She was n. quaint little thing—Pixio O'Day. .In her boyish riding breeches and bright scarlet blouse, she looked just what fho was—a child of the bush.

For many years now the surveyor, Mr. O'Day, had lived on the outskirts of the big kauri forests north of Kaikohc. Theirs had been a happy littlo home until a memorable day when gentle Mrs. O'Day had broken down under the strain of the hard years of lifo in the bush, and the surveyor, worried and distracted, had sent her to Wliangarei to try and regain her strength, leaving v.ild, thirteen-year-old Pixie to take caro of her father. That was a year ngo now, ana to-day—-to-day—

Pixio thrilled. Fur to day her mother was returning to them for a-short uhile.

The day passed quickly, and l>y evening Pixie was feeling bo:h nervous and excited. At five o'clock her father drove off to tho Ivaikohe Station to meet tho

northern express that Mrs. O'Day was travelling on.. Left to herself, Pi.\:e wandered round nervously. The weather wag clouding

over, and knowing all weather signs as she did, she was sura a storm was brewing. Fervently she prayed that it might keep back until her mother and father were home. But she had not long returned to tho warmth and comfort of the little home 'han, with suddenness and fury, tho storm burst. In terrible gusts the wind raged through the giant kauris; great sheets of hail swept over the countryside, and black darkness enveloped the sky. Pixio shivered. Her mother ana father would have left the station by now, and 'would ho caught in tho fury of the storm. Up and down m the warmth of the kitchen she paced, on'y stepping to peer anxiously through tho little window into tiie wild night without. An hour passed, and Mr. and Mrs. O'Day had not returned. What could have happened to them ■ Pixie thought of her delicate mother out in the storm, and a de&nerate idea entered her head. She would go and search for them- There might have been an accident. They might—her heart beat ropidly in fear, for she. had just thought of the treacherous quicksands out of Kai* kohe.

She gave a shaky little laugh. " I'm imagining things," she told herself fiercely. " Why, dad knows even' inch of the country. He'd keep well nwav from the quicksands to-night. He couldn't possibly make a mistake and drive? into them." But in her heart she knew it was not so.

Hastily donning her mackintosh r»nn son'-wester. sho opened tho door nnd disappeared into tho wild and stormy night. The wind raged and screamed across tho country; tho ruin and hail beat mercilessly dovu. The storm was at its zenith.

Sobbing and panting. Pixie ran through the darkness until ahead sho saw a light, and recognised, thankfully, that it was ono of tho workmen's cottages.

She stopped there just long enough to grab some ropes and ask the men to follow her. and continued her desperato run through tho night. Suddenly sho stopped. What was that? Faintly above tho noise of the storm came a cry of despair. "Help! Help!" Pixie's legs flew over th>3 remaining distance, until at Inst, through tlie darkness, she saw the horrifying scene that sho had dreaded vet expected. In tho middle of tho quicksands was the horse and trap, slowly and surely sinking. Sho caught a glimpso of her mother's white and terrified face; saw her father's frantic efforts to reach firm land, and the liorso struggling as hopelessly in the clutching sands. " Hullo! Dad, I'm hero!" Pixio called cheerfully through the darkness, and did ! not know that her father offered up a prayer of thankfulness for having such a plucky daughter. Then sho .threw the rope, anil the long, strenuous pull began. At Inst sho succeeded in tying her end of tho rope round a tree-trunk, and, desperately [lulling, sho managed to keep her mother and father from finking beneath tho grey snmls. But. mo progress was made, and Pixie, panting and gasping, her hands blooding and aching from tho ropes, had j almost given up in despair when through ! the storm she heard a welcome shout, and 1 bushmon and Maoris began rushing along 1 with ropes and plunks. ! " It's all right, dad, you're saved." j Pixie called out, and then, as eagor hands i relieved her of tba rope. " Oh, hurry and j savo them, or—" But hero hor voice ! faltered, and she sunk limply to tho j ground. Pixie had won through. It was a week later, and Mr. and Mr-*. I G'Day nnd Pixie stood rather sadly on j tho platform of tho train that was speeding them lo Auckland, and watched tho j fields and forests of Kaikoho fly swiftly ! by. ' Well," Saul Pixie, in her usual cheer I fnl treble, " we'll all be back in a couple | of years when mother's better, and 1 vo | finished my schooling, nnd then we'll j havo forgotten —'' And she laughed j rather shakily. She alone knew that- it would take many > inonihs of happy school life and gladness j to wipe away tho vivid memory of that I wild New Zealand night, when tho ; treacherous Kaikoho quicksands had j near.lv claimed its victims.