A Golden Hour

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23839, 14 December 1940, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Golden Hour

rvEAR AX X E SHIRLEY, One beautiful day my friend and T decided to spend lunch hour exploring a wayside track. On our travels we crossed a bridge under which a stream danced its war. We took another track that branched from the main one and found ourselves crossing another bridge where the weeping willows whispered their secrets to the water. Away in the distance one could hear the tinkling music of a waterfall. As we followed this winding pathway, we found ourselves climbing higher and higher. Eventually we came upon the waterfall. It was only a tiny one, but all about it the lovely ferns

—Copied by Nancy Hansen (17), M.B.G. spread their fronds shading it from the sunshine. Up the slopes of the hills grew many kinds of trees, laughing and talking together, and it was here that the birds gathered to sing their sweetest songs. We lunched near a grassy bank, shaded from the sunlight by the friendly trees, and down the valley came the sounds of the steady rhythm of a hammer, the pulsating throb of a water pump, mingled with the song of the waterfall. All too soon the golden hour slipped by, and we had to leave. As we wended our way back, we heard the lovely notes of a tui. Also, down by the stream, we caught sight of a pohutukawa coming into blossom. As we passed, fern fronds bowed to us as though thanking us for our praise. When \ve reached the main road again we paused to glance back at our hidden trail. And so. A nun Shirley, there came to an end a golden hour well-spent with a charming, companion. —Yours sincerely, Audrey Lewis, Paengaroa.