FIRESIDE FANTASY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23601, 9 March 1940, Page 3 (Supplement)

FIRESIDE FANTASY

Original. By CONSTANCE BOSSON (12). AS I reclined in the depths of an armchair before a blazing fire, I soon found myself lost in thought. I seemed to see myself on a lonely island. The part where I stood was more frequented by birds than any other, ,for it was a sheltered, sunny nook. Here and there ratas leaned far out and dropped their scarlet blossoms on the tranquil sea, while the lawyer hung its beautiful, amber berries wherever it could cling and climb. The kowhai drooped its pretty yellow bells over a little stream. I longed to climb a tree where 1 could see my feathered .friends more easily, and at last managed to find a seat high up in the branches. What a view! Before me stretched an almost endless panorama of green tuish. 1 sat there spellbound for some minutes. Presently a greeny-brown bird perched on a branch in front of me, and sang a note such as might have come from a golden bell struck by a golden hammer. It then stepped along the bough and- sang a song so lovely it was almost a pain to hear. It seemed to me. as I sat there entranced, as though the music bubbled up and overflowed from a magic well of sound in the bird's throat. Long after the little songster had gone I was there, musing on the exquisite melody. Crack! A cinder falling on to the hearth brought me back to the realities of everyday life.