A CHRISTMAS VISIT TO DOT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 83

A CHRISTMAS VISIT TO DOT.

History, like the universe, is composed of paitiol-es. This *rwth has rcm into proVerb long enough ago. My old schoolmaster was very fond of quoting m his musical stentorian voice, "Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle." One of those interesting incidents that bring the particles of perfection or happiness —for happiness you all know is perfection—together happened in the Otago Witness Office during Christmas week. In company with a shy companion who was making he*- debut before the queen of D.L.F. society and a little boy in blue I dropped in to wish Dot—dear Dot, as the little boy in blue her —the compliments of the season. We went up a oommonplace flight of stairs, through the commonplace folding doors, knocked at the first door on the right,—and -away fled the commonplace, for Dot herself opened the door, and the welcome she_ imparted was sufficient in itself to .constitute her the queen of the fairies. Nature, however, is never content with making one petal beautiful: she unfolds - them one behind another, adding scent to beauty, and perfection 'to both, till soon we are possessed of a. flower oi inexpressible loveliness. So it was in the Witness Office that memorable morning. There were two other fairies waiting, Ceres and* Sadie. And the sun shining through the' big window in Dot's office mingled with the sunny smiles, and made a very pleasant Christmas picture — /peace and goodwill. The Witness Office not being a' place where folk congregate to rest, we were striving to solve the question of how to 3eat six people on two chairs, when another tap, tap came to the door. We each looked) at the other, and our looks said "More fairies!" So it proved, —West Coast ones this time. Their _ entry and" shaking of hands and kindly greeting made the chair problem a seeming impossibility. In this, however, we were,, reckoning without our hostess, for presently, like the wonderful things that -come out of a necromancer's hat, the- chairs came tumbling in. The merry company then settled down to conversation, if seven happy tongues wagging at once —-to say nothing of the boy in blu« getting a quiet one in now and again — could be written down as conversing. It was Christmas time, however, and babel was pardonable. There were so many things to discuss: the page, the picnics, the clubs, old friends, etc., etc. To disentangle the pleasant hubbub would be to rob it of its charm, so we must be content with just a little bit of the tangle. Ceres was trying to impress the beauties of Riverton on Paparoa, who was rather successfully at the same moment trying to tell Blondel that she was going to the Oamaru picnic, look interestingly at the little boy in blue, and follow the thread of an interesting conversation Dot was holding with Ceres, when someone, probably a benighted reveller dreaming of the coming inter-club debate, called out to Ceres, "Mind you give Harry a doing!" On the table was a pile of Christmas and New Year cards from Auckland to the Bluff, and farther, for amongst the postmarks could be seen those of Tasmania and Western Australia. That was only on the top; the pile was as high as this, and' as broad as that, and was just as difficult to entangle as the conversation. When to this pile we add the thousand Christmas thoughts Dot receives that never get into the post bag, it can be^magined what an immense table she would need 1 to hold them all. Then there was —but did I hear the bell? No doubt, and no "wonder! for I set myself the impossible task of writing in four hundred and fifty words what seven sturdy, happy New Zealand tongues could barely get into a goods- hour. Engagements then ! drew them reluctantly out of dear Dot's ' office into the street, but even there their tongues wagged on, and it took the policeman all nis time to keep away from the Witness corner, where six merry people were clustering round the happy moments like bees round thir queen. At last they parted, ' and their parting word being the common property of all happy hearts, I will pass it on: "A bright *nd good' New Year to you all!" BLONDEL. [I would like you to convey to Grand Master's family, and especially to Love in a Mist, my very deep sympathy for therm in this loss. They will mourn him and miss him all the more for that bright disposition of which you speak; but at the same time, I think that they must rejoice to feel that he scattered so much kindness and happiness during his short life. I am truly sorry that they have been called upon to lose him. — DOT.J