The Magic Horse

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Magic Horse

BY NELLIE DONOVAN, WELLINGTON

Susan felt very lonely, and pressed her nose dismally against the windowpane. She pressed it so hard that it became quite flat, and hdl l breath made great white smudges on the window. It was very interesting to draw fat little men with large hats, tiny arms and legs, large dots for eyes and great slits for mouths. Susan drew six of them in a row, but she soon became tired of that, for it was very dull when the little men just stared stupidly back at you. She wished she had someone to play with, but there was no other little boy or girl in the block of four flats in which Susan lived. " Ugly concrete things," Susan called them. Mummio wrote stories for Australian magazines and was very busy all day. Mummie had , said they wouldnt always have to live in a flat, but would soon have a lovely house of their own, with lots of ground, in the country. Susan wondered when that would be, for it was last year mummie had said that, and that was ever so long ago. Susan turned from the window in disgust, leaving the fat little men to be rubbed off, or to fade away with the heat of tho sun on the window. In one corner of the room was a cupboard where her toys were kept. She opened the door and swung it back against the wall with a bang. A doll, which had been sitting propped up on a jigsaw box, fell forward with an injured stare against a wooden horse. Susan pulled out the jig-saw and sitting cross-legged on the floor, began to lit the pieces together. But somehow it would not go right to-day, and she jumbled them all back into the box and threw it into the cupboard, hitting the wooden horse on the head. A shudder ran through its body and it shook itself and yawned loudly. "Oh!" it said, "that hurt. Why can't you be more careful ? Susan looked at the horse with wideopen eyes. "Did you speak, Toby.'' she asked. m , ~ " I did," answered Toby. I said, why can't you be more careful?" " Oh!" exclaimed Susan. " You see, I didn't know you could feel. You must be a magic horse." " I am a magic horse," said Toby. "Oh!" Susan's eyes opened wider. " And," continued Toby, " here have I stood day after day in this dark cupboard and had things thrown at me. But that last bang was extra hard," and he rubbed his head with his foreleg. Then he walked out of tho cupboard and stood before Susan. There was a merry twinkle in his brown eyes. " I don't want to bo hard on you, he said, " for we've had many goou times together, haven't we?" And he whisked his tail backwards and forwards. „ " Yes," answered Susan. You know I like vou best of all my toys. Toby was pleased. "Would you like to come on my back for an exciting trip?" T ,. . " Oh," exclaimed Susan, I d love to, but you are far too small to carry me " " I know," said Toby," but if you will take me downstairs, put me on

tho footpath and pull my tail gently three times, I will bo big enough." "Ooh!" Susan clapped her hands excitedly. She picked Toby up, skipped eagerly down the stairs two at a time, out of the main door and on to the footpath. There she set Toby down and pulled his tail gently three times. Then, before her very eyes, Toby grew and grew until he was the size of a real horse. Susan's eyes sparkled with excitement. " Oh, Toby, you. lovely thing." And she ran her hand up and down his smooth, shining skin. " Jump on my back," said Toby. " But I' can't ride," exclaimed Susan. " Just cling to my mane, and you 11 be all right." He bent down and Susan jumped on his back easily. " Away we go," said Toby, and stepped off the footpath and on to the road. '' Where are we going, Toby ? asked Susan. " Wait and see," said Toby.

Toby trotted along the road for some distance. Then he turned down a strange- street. Quaint little yellow houses lined each side of the street and funny little people were playing happily about. " This," said Toby, "is the first street in Hoblo-Goblin Land on The-Edge-of-the-World, and the little people are the Hoblo-Goblins. They pull the sun out of bed each morning so that ho will shine on some part of the world. They make all the rainbows and polish the moon and the stars. Get off my back and I'll introduce you." Susan jumped off Toby's back and was instantly surrounded by the HobloGoblins, who wore little suits made of green leaves. They were very friendy little people and asked Susan to - join in their games. Susan did so, and played such novel games as, " Who can climb the quickest up the rope-ladder hanging from the clouds." " Who can polish the stars the quickest." " Who can tickle the ear of Old-Man-in-the-Moon without waking him," and many others. Toby was kept very busy giving some of the baby Hoblo-Goblms rides up and down the street. i After they had finished playing games, Susan was carried to a huge mushroom, and there she sat while the Hoblo-Goblins brought her fairy cakes to eat and butterfly smash to drpik. Then they all danced around and around her, singing at the top of their shrill little voices.

Then Toby came to take Susan home, and she had regretfully to say goodbve to the Hoblo-Goblins. They all said how pleased they were that she had come, and hoped she would come again. It was not long before they were outside Susan's home, and Toby said, " Pull my tail gently to make me small. Susan did so, and Toby was a little wooden horse again. When Susan was upstairs putting Toby back into the toy-cupboard, she said, " Oh, Toby, I did enjoy that trip. You'll take me again, won't you?"

And Toby's eyes looked into hers as if to say " yes."