LETTERS FROM LITTLE FOLKS. THE LADIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2055, 13 July 1893, Page 45

LETTERS FROM LITTLE FOLKS.

THE LADIES.

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Aim will be pleuel to reectn ktteri frwt any oorrttyoifc e»U on any matter of intemt to then, nnd to reply .thronfk tkg medium of till page, thi aoa it plume only of the c*rre*p3*4c»tl to be ptSUrtei, Lftton it ft* MiittMi " Uic*" ten H m Kilter.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Verbena.— (l) July 22, 18D8, fell on a Friday, ?md July 25, 1873, also fell on a Friday. (2) Patterns of crochet work, &c, as a rule take up far too much space to warrant their being given. However, I subjoin you a shell pattern suitable for shawls:— Make a length of chain having any number of stitches that will divide by four. Every row is commenced with three chain, which are to represent one treble. First row — (after the three chain), 2 treble into the last of the foundation chain, * miss 1, 5 treble in the next stitch, miss 1, 1 double crochet in the next ; repeat from \ At the end of the row turn the work. Second row— 3 chain, 2 treble in the first of the chain, 1 double crochet in the centre of the first shell of the last row, taking up the front part of the stitch, * 5 treble in the stitch between the next two shells, this time taking up the back of, the stitch, 1 double crochet into the middle stvrch of the next shell, taking up the front of the stitch ; repeat from *. All the rowß are worked like this second row. To increase in this stitch work two shells into the same stitch, which should be the double crochet between two shells of a previous row, a double crochet should be worked betweenithe two extra shells into the same stitch in which they themselves are • worked. Slight increase may be made by working a larger number of treble in each shell. To decrease, work two shells together with a double crjehet stitch taken through their centre stitches. (3) The only cure for corns is to remove the pressure which causes them. If soft corns between the toes this can be done by wearing corn plasters ; if hard ones, get your bootmaker to widen your boots. (4) The medium height for a woman is sft 4in. New Chum.— Thank you for your kind letter. I am very glad that the article helped you so much. Be brave and pßrsevew.

"Tell her I love her so—

I love her so."

The singer's voice rang ontTpassfonately through the hall— as passionately as the cry has gone out into the world- since man and woman hare been in existence. The boy who first loves believes and .thinks honestly that that first passion of his will be his last* He elects one woman from the world— the only woman, she seems to him, and compared with her all others are poor and meaningless. She is his queen, bis goddess, and her imperfections are not perceptible to him because he sees in her an image of his ideal— the ideal which he worships all his life long. The world calls him inconstant if his affections change; yet they often do— they do because he pursues his ideal, and in bis pursuit finds, as in the story told by the Bhawnee woman, that he has been following the phantom. A msn with high ideals almost invariably goes -through this experience—bitter ana painful and humiliating, Lut none the less truef but bis first love is his last love, strange though it may seem, even if the object of it be not the same. He, has loved his ideal always, but the image of it "has changed. " <

If I depart from the' usual .acceptation of the accusation that ••• Man is inconstant ever," it 13 not to excuse the unfaithfulness, but to sue for patient hearing of what) seems to me the cause. To believe that man is only brutal in his instincts and animal in his attraction to our sex, id to believe the worsc N of ourselves — that there is nothing in us to reveienoe, nothing above our mere bodily beauty that gives us power to influence and to hold. Tha history ol the world disproves such an accusation, and the experience of our own lives shows it to be false.

A man in his first passionate love loves the woman whom he loves last, and whom he loves all bis life through — loves her in the ideal. If girls only knew and recognised this fact — a fact of which even their lover is in ignorance— they would understand that he will only be their lover so long as they are a representation of his ideal. He is in love with that, not them. The law of magnetic attraction draws him to them in the' person, and both are peihapa deceived ; and the only safeguard of the woman is in how fax sh.e realises a man's dream. The lover who believes in all goodness of her he loves, and who would shrink from the knowledge of any flaw or blemish in her, is telling himself and her every day, although neither he nor she may know it, that it is perfection that be worships, symbolised in her. When you meet the cold cynic, the man who sneers at woman's truth, you meet the man who is gathering as be has sowd, who is regarding the broken pieceß of the idol he has overthrown with bitterness and scorn— the outcome of the knowledge that he could break it, that his faith in the pure gold had been destroyed by himself, or that big conception o£ it had become perverted, If he had never hoped, he would not

Dear Dot,— l am going to write you my story. I am a Clock. I am set in white marble, which is carved out in the design of Cupid throwing his darfc. So far as I can remember I was first in a jeweller's shop. He wan an old man, and he kept a lot of watches, clocks, and jewellery. One day a grand lady saw me in the window and liked the design in which I was set, so she bought me. I was sent to her home, which was a very grand one. When she came home she untied the string and took off the paper, and Bet me on a little table in a room filled wibh books, and then she sat down to read some letters which were on the table. Among&t them was an invitation to her cousin's wedding, which was to come oil in a week. She accepted the invitation, and the next day she went to see her cousin, taking me and a large parcel with her. She went there pretty early, and was made very welcome. The cousin was a tall, dark girl, with brown eyes, and about 20 years of age. She accepted me ,and the parcel with many thanks, for we were the wedding gift. We were pub away in a box, and a day or two afterwards were taken to a pretty little villa in a suburb of the town. I was put on the mantelpiece of the best room, which they called the drawing room. It was all done in red velvet, and it was very pretty. My mistress and master came home a day or two afterwards. I remained here for a long time, keeping on a regular ," tick, tick " all the time. Bat one night, when it was very dark, a man came and put me in a bag and took me away with some other things. 1 could not cry out or do anything to let my master know that we were being taken away. This man went to the station, and, as the train was just leaving, he stepped on, and we were quickly whisked !off from the scene of my old home. Ifc was daylight when the train stopped, and the man getting out took me and went; to a shop which I afterwards knew was a pawnbroker's. He and the man bargained for a long time over me, and the man, getting the money, left me at the pawnbroker's. That very day I was bought ,by a gentleman, who gave me to his clerk as a Christmas box. The clerk took me home. He was a middle-aged man, and he didn't know what to do with snch a grand clock as I was, so he packed me tip and senb me to his sister, who was very much younger than himself, to keep for him, he said, till he got married ; but I am Btillat his sister's, bo he isn't married yet, and I expect he never will be. I will close now, for I have no more to tell, and I mighb run out if I continued much longer, so again tick, tick, , tickjgo I.— Yours truly, The Clock. 1 Invercargill, July 26. [This Clock evidently knows more of its own history than its present owner does. If she sees this letter I wonder if she will find out ■. who the young lady to whom the clock belonged > is and restore it to her ? She would no doubt be sorry to lose her handsome clock, but it would 'be scarcely fair to keep it if she knew.— Dot.] ( Dear Dot,— l live at Waitati, which is a