Between Ourselves

Southland Times, Issue 20538, 14 July 1928, Page 10 (Supplement)

Between Ourselves

Cousin Mary: I don’t think your father is altogether wrong, my dear. You are . certainly a lucky little girl to possess an Oxford Dictionary and a Children’s Encyclopaedia, besides collecting a “Waverley Children’s Dictionary” at present. Please do tell me more about that. Did you forget to send your ’Sharpeners last week? Cousin Mary: I am glad, dear, that your mother, too, is interested in the page. Come up and see me one day (but let me know what day) and we will discuss what you could do at the concert. Please stick to your good resolution of writing to me every week. Cousin Dad’s Shadow: I was sorry there was a mistake made in your age, young Cousin. That was stupid of me. Goodness! Fancy taking so long to blow the candles out! Cousin Emily: What a lovely farewell social your grandmother and grandfather had, dear, and how nice it will be for you to have them to stay with whenever you like. Goodness! Are you still playing i hockey, after all ’he lectures I have given my Cousins against! Look after yourselfYour poem was too late this week. Cousin Snow-flake: When you send me any contribution for the page, dear, even jokes or riddles, please put your real name underneath each one. Were you playing in the basketball match? Please write and tell me how it got on. I don’t suppose you have any flowers in your garden just now, have you? Cousin Pansy: I am very glad you prize your enrolment card so highly, dear. Thank you for the riddle. Write to me again . oon, won’t you. Cousin Alan: Well done, boy Cousin! What rplendid marks you gained in arithmetic and spelling. You must write and tell me the final result. If you are doing so well at school, I suppose I can’t blame you for not writing to me very often. Please tell your sister I shall expect to see her about 2.30 on Monday afternoon. I hope your eye is better again. Cousin John: Welcome to our page, new Cousin. Send me your name, age, and date of birth on a separate slip of paper, please, so that I can send you an enrolment card. It was very sad that the young calf was drowned. Is sowing lime a very hard job? Cousin Sunflower: I had expected a very blue and doleful letter (although I’ve nearly grown past the stage of expecting a letter at all!) and here is one of the old charming ones instead! That was a surprise, my dear, which would stand frequent repetition. You just try and see! I hope the emulsion has had its required effect. The buds on the Flowering Currant certainly do sound exciting. Cousin Country Lass: Please sign your real name at the foot of your letters, dear—also on any other contribution you may send me. I cannot always remember the

owners of nom de plumes. I am so glad the girls beat the boys—though I wouldn’t like them to hear me eay so! Cousin Daddy-long-legs: Does the pocin begin “You know, we French stormed , Ratisbon?” I can remember learning that at school, too. Goodness! I should say j there would be no clan meeting with snow ion the ground! Surely they didn’t hold ! one! | Cousin Bridget O’Flynn: Yes, dear, I should like to receive poems from you for the Poet’s Section. Put the author’s name at the end, then your own. I was never a good basketball player. You eee, I am not as clever at games as many of my Cousins are. Cousin Jean: Welcome to our page, new Cousin. Ido hope you will enjoy being a Little Southlander so much that you will write often. It must be very cold driving to school these mornings, and sometimes you and your brother must get very wet. i I am glad the horse is quiet, anyway. I Cousin Silver Leaf: All those who wish to be members of the clan, dear, must decide, first, where to meet. Then, at your first meeting you appoint a Clan Leader who will send me in reports of your meetings and will be responsible for letting the others know always when and where to meet. At the meetings each member spends the time in making articles suitable for selling at our bazaar. I hope your cold is better now. | Cousin Sybol: I think you draw very nicely, dear, and I was pleased to hear from you again. Your entry arrived three days too late for the competition. Do tell me more about the birthday party, please. | I love them. Cousin Pierrette: Thank you for the address, dear, and the other very acceptable news. I shall look forward to seeing your mother very much. Please tell her that on Monday and Tuesdays I leave the office at about 10 minutes to 4 to attend rehearsals. Goodness! What a catastrophe to the pantry! Cousin Dancing Sunbeam: What, my dear, has happened to that weekly budget that I had grown to expect as regularly as Mondays after Sundays? I don’t approve of its discontinuation in the least little bit. I think it was very foolish to continue the match in the pouring rain. Please don’t do it again. Cousin Albert: Welcome to our page, new cousin. I hope you will enjoy being a Little Southlander as much as I love enrolling new Cousins. Cousin Gretta: I certainly had begun to think that you had forgotten me. That is why your letter was such a pleasant surprise. Please don’t neglect me so shamefully again. Tell me more about that very interesting tea party and fancy dress dance. Your district must be increasing to be adding important new residents.

[Cousin Geoffrey: Thank you for your nice letter, little Cousin. One of these days you are going to make me very happy by writing to me all by your very own self! You’ll let that be your very first letter, won’t you, please? I should just say you are lucky to have a torch of your own— I haven’t. Cousin lan: I was very glad to enrol you, new Cousin, and I hope I will hear from you often. Are you going to enter for any of the competitions? I think it must be fine to be a Boy Scout. Cousin Kitty: Just you tell Arley’that playing Patience will never help to improve her writing. The best way to learn to write—is to write! And tell her further, that I am a very long-suffering individual who doesn’t mind being practised on in the least! Yes, I certainly think you girls should learn to drive the car. By the way, when are you appearing as bridemaids I am expecting a long-deferred visit from you then, you know. Cousin Janet: I have been missing your verse-making efforts lately, my dear, and now that the exams, are over I simply won’t accept any excuse—but a poem! You’ll tell me 4 about your report, too, won’t you please. Do you like exams? Cousin Desmond: Fancy you talking about exams, too! They certainly do seem to be “in the air!” Do the girls not have plasticine? I bet the boys don’t have sewing! Cousin Noeline: I think I must be verystupid, dear, because I’m still wondering what the drawing on the other side of the page is meant to be. You must tell Desmond or Joyce to tell me, won’t you please ? Cousin Joyce: You’ll be learning quite lots about bazaars that will come in useful when our own comes! What did you do with the bags and the bottles? It certainly wasn’t fair to give you such hard spelling words and mental—l’m surprised at your teacher, that’s what I am! Cousin Moonlight Reverie: Yes, I used to love debating, only we didn’t have as much opportunity at school then as you people do now. Of course the boys had the easier subject. Expected or not, I’m growing quite tired of this weather, and I don’t mind admiting it. Cousin Persephone: I do like you to be “in the humour to write me a nice long letter,” so please be it soon again. I wonder, when you are wishing that the ice will become “thick enough to hold herds of elephants,” you are really thinking of such animals or only you sportive school-child-ren? I know people who would say that the difference is negligible! Anyway, I think it’s mean of you to want it to freeze at all, when I’m sure I’d never survive it. Cousin Edna: It was nice hearing from you again after such a dreadfully long interval. Please write again soon. You are very lucky, my dear, to be able to hear the wireless so often—it keeps you very much in touch with the rest of the world, doesn’t it. Cousin Rose of the Desert: Give Kitchener my respects and see to it that he takes greater care of himself in the future, will you, please. I accepted both your love and regrets in the spirit in which you sent them. Cousin Snow Queen : I hope you win that bicycle, dear, although I think there is no doubt that you will. How did your essay fare in the competitions? Well, I hope. Will you be keeping house while your mother and sisters are away? Cousin Moonshine: My dear, what a surprise your letter had in store for me! But please tell me more about it. My curiosity is infinite when it is a question of my Cousins and their doings. I hope I will hear from you just as much as ever. Will I? Cousin Ocean Whispers: I will keep your badge until you come for it, my dear, and then I will be sure that you really will come to see me! So you see what a cunning Big Cousin I am! Cousin Merrymind: Yes, your things are still here, my dear, and I will keep them, too, until you come for them! Come in and see me after school some Thursday or Friday, and let me know beforehand, please. I am glad you are doing so well at school—come and tell me about it!