LETTERBOX CORNER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 4 (Supplement)

LETTERBOX CORNER

DEAR GIRLS AND BOYS: Another busy week, with all the Firefide Competition entries to go through. The best entries sent in were those in the Junior Painting Contest, many very nice crayon and water-colour sketches being submitted. The work in the illustrated poem contest was also good, and several of the sketches will be used ns space permits. The illustrated Motto Contest was rather disappointing, the lettering in most cases being weak and the designs much below the usual high standard./ It has been very interesting reading nil " The Best Month " letters. Only one writer hit on my own special month, March, and the majority were in favour of December. I like March best because t»ie weather is settled then, and I love the calm, still days. The water is still warm enough for swimming, the bush is dry, and there is something in the March sunsets, something wistful and beautiful in those last brief, swift-passing days of summer that always lays a spell upon my heart. But I can readily understand why the young folk like December best, with the excitement of holidays and Christmas. Don't miss, our Surprise Page next Saturday. and be. sure you do your best for Animal Page!

mclierton

IN THE BUSH. Dear Miss Morton,—l am going to tell yon about a clay in the bush I hud last holiday. One day in the holidays I went .for a walk in the bush. It was about twelve o'clock when I sat down under a kowhai tree to eat my lunch. I was charmed to hear the tuis' bell-like notes above my head. In the -undergrowth beside me the fantail flitted about catching in6ects, which my eyes could not see. They were very friendly little birds nnd came quite close to -me. The kowhai tree under which I was sitting was a mass of golden bells with a few green leaves here and there. The flowers hung in clusters so that when the trees are in full bloom they are masses of gold. The kowhai flower has five long petals and ten long stamens hanging from the centre of the golden bell. The little bells hang in small bronze cups which have in them some nectar for the bees, tuis and the bellbirds. Having finished my lunch I continued my walk down the track. Next 1 came to a waterfall which was falling fast, with beautiful ferns on either eide. Farther down there were groups of kahikatea trees filled with fantails' twitters and silver eyes' squeets. There was so much to see that the time soon went. The setting sun warned me that it was time to turn pnd go home. As 1 was walking past the ■waterfall I saw hundreds of little flights. At first. I did not know what they were. 1 thought for a moment and said to myself hundreds of glow-worms among the moss." "When I returned home I told my story to mother a3 I have told it to you now.—From your pen-friend, Agnes Stanton,. Hidden feoad, Glendowie. St. Heliera (age 9). A MORNING WALK. Dear Miss Morton.—The sun was just tipping the edge of a tuft of fluffy, pink cloudlets with a ripple of gold when I set out. warmly clad, for a walk in the clear morning air, along the little white road. In a nearby field a few little lambs were frisking and frolicking about the grassy meadows, yet all the time under the watchful eye of their mother. On either side of me were the once green meadows, now covered' with a mantle of whie frost, which glistened and sparkled in the sunlight. Many leafless trees fitretched out their taunt branches, 'ooking the picture of misery, while on the branches of the tree 3 tiiat had escaped Jack Frost's merciless clutches a few cheery little birds chirped gaily in spite of the cold. Presently I came to a bmall iane, and after walking niong it for some time 1 turned into a tiny woodland forest. A few stray beams of sunshine found their way through the tangled undergrowth, and 'ss the eunbeams flitted in and out. they threw tiny blotches of gdlden sunlight on the frost-covered leaves and foliage, making a lovely pal tern of snowy white, palo green and soft yellow. The little stream close by that, a few weeks beforo .had rippled gaily along over the many pebbles now appeared a winding streak of ice, After retra<ing my footsteps through the many woodland dories 1 emerged once more into the sunlight, and turned toward home.—Your loving pen-friend, Nora Fulton, I'arr Street, Frankton Junction (age 12 J. SPniNG. Dear Miss Morton.— Do you like spring? .1 do. The (lowers are nwake. bu<l3 are coming oil the fruit trees, and soon the dnisics iu the field will lie flowering. I have got a garden and. at present, the daffodils are out. That tells me that spring is here. Wr have got buds on our plum nnd peach trees at present. They are beginning to get new leaves, too. 1 think this is the best time of the year, because there nre ntore flowers; every) hine seems fresher and bnchter and the paddocks look greener. I'ootball is pla.ved in the curly spring and cricket is played iu the late spring. I am your sincere pen-friend, Mac Allcock, jWaungakaramea. (ace 10).