BABES IN THE WOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 14

BABES IN THE WOOD.

LOST FOR SEVEN HOURS. FOUND SEVERAL MILES AWAY. " The Babes in the Wood," in a modern setting, was enacted in Sydney recently, when two little girls, after being lost for seven hours, wero found under a tree miles away, where they had sobbed themselves to sleep. Betty, aged and Poppy, nged 3, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. 11. Porterwho conduct a news agency, were playing in the shop during the afternoon. About four o'clock they were missed. While scores of polico were searching for the toddlers, and five wireless stations at intervals broadcast appeals to the public to look out for two little darkeyed girls who were wheeling a perambulator containing a celluloid doll, the "Babes" had crossed busy Castlercagh and Elizabeth Streets, wandered across Hyde Park, safely negotiated College Street near the cathedral, and continued through the streets of Woolloomooloo. Hopelessly lost, and afraid to tell anyone of their plight, tlicy kept trudging on, pushing their little perambulator, until, exhausted, they sought shelter under a tree in an open space at East Sydney, where they cried themselves to sleep. It was 11 o'clock at night when polico odicers found them, cold and hungry, huddjed together under the tree, and just as they were lifted into a car, torrential rain commenced to fall. But they were swiftly restored to their grief-stricken parents. The mother was almost on the point of collapse. " 1 thought they had been kidnapped," said the father. " That horrible thought immediately occurred to my wile and myself, because wo have, been reading so much about the Lindbergh baby. " About four o'clock I saw them playing in the si lop. They must have taken it into their heads to stray off, and how they managed to cross all those thoroughfares without being run over is amazing. My wife was in a dreadful stale. I never want to go through such an ordeal again."