The Broomstick Girl:

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23489, 28 October 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

The Broomstick Girl:

HELENE put down the heavy pail at the foot of the stairs then tossed back her long, heavy hair. It was cool in the old castle, but shadowy .... how shadowy! On the first landing the light filtered through a stained-glass window making a glorious colourpattern of a knight and charger. Helene looked dreamily at the shimmering rose and purple that seemed to dye the stairway. She was thinking of a time, centuries ago, when the knight and his friends had lived here in the old castle filling the high, stone halls with the jingle of mail and the echoes of jousting songs. She seemed to see them all around her: to hear whispering voices and the airy swish of floating draperies. Now, where had she to put the pail? Ah . . . hero, old Elise had said, in this cupboard under the stairs. Elise, who looked after the castle and sometimes hobbled through its fifty rooms with parties of tourists, sometimes asked Helone to come up from the villago to help. Elise had a crooked eye and a voice as hoarse as a saw but Helene, who was all sunshine and imagination was not afraid of her. To-day Elise's rheumatism prevented her from leaving her bed. Helene would receive no payment but that did not

matter. It was payment enough to be surrounded by the castle walls, to trace history in the pictures that bordered its rooms; to touch its clumsy silver pieces and the symbols above the doorways. Helene tugged at the old cupboard door and it swung heavily. She stepped inside with her pail and peered into the gloom. Where was the large, black broom for which Elise had sent her .... and the old scarlet slippers r Ah, here they were ... all cobwebby. It must have been months since they had been worn. "What funny, old shoes! Their soft leather was wrinkled and the buckles twinkled wickedly. Elise laughed and it seemed as though another laugh as sweet and clear as her own echoed up the staircase. She slipped her small bare feet into the slippers just for fun but as she looked down to laugh again she felt a now sensation tingling through her toes. Strangely, the shoes seemed to have shrunk and tlidy fitted as if they were I her own. They seemed to carry her like 0000000000000000000000000001

wings sometimes on the worn stone floor, sometimes over it. Something seemed to urge her to hold fast to the broomstick and as she did so it rose like a bird up, up, and out through a window into the cool blue dusk. Dp to the very stars she sailed, her hair like a flying cloud. It was all most wonderful 1 ©own below, faintly, she could see the castle and as she looked, suddenly, she saw lights spring up in all its windows. Like a great, candle cake it

THE SORCERER'S TOWER —Drawn by Annie Ah Chan, M.B.G. (14). looked, or like a giantess' brooch sparkling on the bosom of the earth. She steered the broomstick back toward it and as She came lower and lower, she heard strains of enchanting music. She paused on a window-ledge and peeped in. Somebody else was looking out and she drew back. It was the young knight of 'the window, blue-eyed and smiling. He seemed to have been watching for her. "Come in, Broomstick Girl," he called, beckoning. "Leave your broomstick on the ledge but don't dare to take off your scarlet slippers!" Helone was led down the broad staircase to tho danco hall. She gasped at the sight beneath her. The hall was filled with knights and ladies. They were just as she had imagined them so often. The ladies looked like princesses, so tall and haughty they were and so rich were their brocaded gowns. Tliey stood still and looked up toward Helene as though she wero a queen making her entrance. "The Witch of tho Castle!'' they called. "Not this time," answered the knight. "A great surprise for us. Our friend Elise, the witch, has sent her lovely Broomstick Girl instead. They stretched hands to welcome ner and then festivities of a grander nature than even- Helene had pictured. She, the Broomstick Girl, was their honoured guest. The knights bowed over her little brown hand, ladies curtsied low liefore her. They showed her treasures in tho castle and played exciting games in the old garden. She was happy beyond her wildest dreams. And the greatest moment of all came when the picture knight, touching a floWer in tho pattern of a Avail, opened a hidden door ... a door which even Eliso had not spoken about. "This is the hidden treasure of the castle. It is for you, Broomstick Girl. There, on a table, stood a chalice of liold. In it the light swam like liquid fire. It was encrusted with precious 000000000000000000000000000

By Pamela Grenville

stones and covered with fine designs. Ilelene .was speechless. She could not take her eyes from this wonder. She felt* a hand on her shoulder .... a hand that grew heavier. A voice shouted, "Wake up, Helena. It is time you went home for supper." It was her peasant l'riend, Jose. Helene, regarding him beneath drowsy lids noticed that he had straight golden hair like the knight. "0, what a dream! Jose, the treasure!" ' "Elise has. been telling you stories," he said kindly. "But the old witch will tell you no more. She died in her sleep this very night. All" witches die on Hallowe'en." "Strange," murmured Helene, looking down at hor feet almost lost in the old slippers, and the black broom th%t leaned against the cupboard door. "Then Elise really was a witch! Jose, I know where it is. . . . the lost treasure of the Knights. The chalice cf gold!" she said suddenly. She shook off the slippers and ran lightly across the stone floors until she came to the. dance hall. There in an alcove she found the stone flower and pressed it.. The air seemed faintly perfumed. A square stone swung back and there, just as she had seen it in her dream, stood the golden chalice, a thing to still tongues with wonder. The countryside for miles around heard of Helene and the Knight's treasure discovered on Hallowe'en and Ilelene and Jose were able to buy a rich farm and live in comfort all their days with the large reward bestowed upon them by the* King.