PATCHWORK PIECES

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 76

PATCHWORK PIECES

By Eileen Service.

(Special for the Otago Witness.)

XXXIII.—AT SEAL POINT.

Before we came to the top of the hill that leads to Portobello we turned to the right and followed a road that ran swiftly and gaily seawards. It was a joyful road. Skip it went down a hollow; leap it went up' a rise, and it was as merry as if the first feet it had known had been those of the Pied Piper. At the end it jumped out of sight into a field, and left us laughing, there among the grass. There was a vague track, .ahead of us, but we were too impatient to heed it. Instead, we hurried across to the left till we came to the brow of a cliff. There we stood.

We did not speak for a moment. Below us were lupines festooned with yellow flowers, the beach like a great plain set in a ring of sandhills, dark cliffs on the top of .which grass was blowing in the wind, and the sea. Not a soul but ourselves was in sight. “iOh I ” we said.

The excitement seized . us, and we rushed helter-skelter forward, intent only on reaching those far-off waves. The lupines stretched forth mischievous arms to detain us. Hidden holes trapped our feet, or branches barred our way. But finally we scrambled through, poised ourselves for a spring, asd went topsy-turvy down the sandhill, and so on to the* beach. Then, in a hollow, we divested ourselves of our clothes and came forth, six nereids, eager for the sea. The tide wag coming in. and, after the waves broke, a carpet of water, hissing with bubbles, surged up the hot beach. We splashed across, and, taking hands, met the oncoming rollers with a shout, advancing and retreating, until we lost our balance and were one with the water about us. The taste of salt was sweet to our lips, and our eyes were dazzled by the sun upon the spray. Then somebody made a suggestion. The beach, the sun, the solitude, and we in our bathing suits—why not pretend we were ancient Greeks and act accordingly. So we turned back the yeans to Hellene days and became six children of Athens. There are certain times so filled with the essence of happiness that their memory lasts for ever. One such time was the hour that followed.

We were warriors engaged in Pyrrhic exercises, we were athletes leaping; we were dryads dancing round a fountain, we were elves skipping. We found a stone and threw it as a discus, and tossed a bough in semblance of a javelin. We could not express the energy which was in us, and which seemed to be enhanced by everything we did. Then we ceased activity and followed another phase of Greek life. We were temple maidens. Against a background of sea we fashioned the movements of the friezes ; we rejoiced on the occasion of-the grape harvest; we mourned the death of a priestess. Over the sand we brought our gifts of fruit and flowers to Artemis, and stood in attitudes of prayer while she gave us her blessing. Surely the years really had turned back. It could not be all make-believe. I hat beach was washed by the 2Egean Sea; on those cliffs the flocks of Pan grazed under a shepherd’s charge. When we were tired we would climb the hill and go back to the city; and there we would change our tunics for lonian chitons and sup on barley-cakes and cupfuls of mead. Never before had we known an hour so filled with beauty!

We came home just before sunset. The sea was like silver melting into a silver sky, for the horizon was so blurred as to be indistinguishable, and a warm haze was over everything.

When w e had climbed the sandhills and stood once more on the cliff, we seemed to be on the top of a world made of o and and grass and sea. ,

The road was waiting for jis when we turned, ready to lead us back to town It was still a joyful road. But now it expressed itself differently from before, in slow, curving movements rather than u n nd? P i S r pS ' , At first we couW not 7 taHd u"’ ly ’ And tben we realised that it was because our mood had changed, thl Jr’ T e T°?' ° f P’ e made at the temple had persisted longer than that of our games, and was even now upon ,us.