FOR YOUNG FOLK

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10985, 7 November 1928, Page 7

FOR YOUNG FOLK

THE YELLOW PATOH She was the youngest girl in the school as well as the shyest-, and she had been a Brownie for a week when Peggy Wayne called her “a silly kid” because isiie screamed when she found a mouse- in her locker. f >e ,Sgy was a Brownie too, but such an old and wise one that before- long s { le would have grown into a blueclad Girl Guide and probably never notice such a shy little Brownie hs Angela. Not that Angela would mind that. She found school-life so bewildering t.iat- it my.de things harder when the critical • Peggy drew attention to all the mistake-s she made. To he continually called silly made her feel silly too, and she- did all sorts o-f foolish things that she would never have done if Peggy’s eyes had not been upon her. Angela was not a boarder. She walked two miles t 0 school every morning and returned at f-cur o’clock The way home was across fields, and in one- of them, about 200 yards trom the foot-path, there was the ruin of an old house which had bec-n roofless for over 50 years. 1 Everybody called it the haunted house, and there was a superstition that if anybody ventured through its broken doorway ill-luck would pursue them for seven yeans, and they would encounter the old woman miser who was said to haunt it.

Angela know this was all nonsense, of course, but. if the- truth must l>e told, she always took to- her heels : nd ran when e-he approached the haunted 1 wise, especially on duskv afternoon s. Then Peggy found this out, ind ihe wanted until everyone was present. and, said: “1 say, Angela, why on earth do you run like that when you pass the haunted house? Pamela and 1 sawyon simply bolt across the- field vosterday.” Angela, blushing, murmured that she was in a lnurv. “Hurry 1 1 like'that! Tn a fright, more likely. F say, girls, this silly kid is frightened of the haunted lictiise I” "I m not.” cried the scarlet AnovE —to be frightened of ghosts was far worse than to be frightened of a mouse, according to Peggy and her superior friends. “Then why do you run?” asked leggy. Aon are afraid. If von r© imt w.-iy don’t you go into the'house and prove it?”

"I will 1” cried Angela. “I'!] go tins very afternoon !” ••Very well, Miss Angela Bold w and it you meet the ghost tell her A'body but silly kids believe in her in these days.” As Angela put on her hat. when a- 1 ter noon iscliool was over, she was not made hap-pier by hearing Peggy say: “That kid go in the haunted house! She'll bolt at the sight of it; It was a dull afternoon with dark, windy clouds driving from the west] and as Angela approached the >ki ruin her knees began to tremble. Of course it v.-a-s silly to believe in ghosts,. Miss Adams, her form mis-ues-s. said superstition was another "prd for ignorance but Angela did wish the wind would not sound likethe old miser woman shrieking. But Brownies couldn't he cowards, ami. bc-Edcs. she had told Peggv .-he would go. The walls of the house were standing, hut the floors had gone long ;go, and as Angela, with beating Wart] I-oeied through the broken doorway, s -If saw the old ruin was carpeted " itb green graiss. An inn- r wall with another doorway led to a tiny corner room looking ro the sea. and as Angola peeped, all thoughts ol haunted houses and ghostlv old miser women fled. On the grassy floor of the little room was a patch o-f yellow— i he bright yellow ot the horned poppies* that ]\lis.s Adams, an enthusiastic 1 otamst. and her l upils hud been searching tor all the term. Angela ran through the little doorday and knelt bc-side them. There they were, in all their golden beauty, hiding in the haunted house until somebody wise eim-ugh not to pluck them all. found them. There was the long double pod -'nslead <,l the capsule-bearing seed as in other poppies, that AT', s Adams had told them about. I: >w pleased she would he. and hove luckv it was that the botany lesson caille the next morning 1 The next day Angel; arrived at -school with flushed cheek-,. Shemarched tip to Mix s Adams’ desk and s »>'ly presented her with a, single yellow horned poppy. "Why. Angela.' my dear child where d el you find this?” "1 found a little patch of them yesterday. ! picked only one. in Hie haunted house.” I here w:.« a dead silence- f -r a moment. then Winifred ILiv. the head girl, who knew all about the challenge' got un and cried: “What a little brick! Three cheers for Angela fmed!” And. strange to say. T’eggvx sheens were the loudest.