Points From Letters

Southland Times, Issue 21773, 30 July 1932, Page 18

Points From Letters

“I am glad to see we have another boy competitor in Cousin Jim Marshall. I admired his drawing of ‘A Cousin .in Distress’ and hope he can write stories as well as he draws. Cousin Dorothy Edwards was beautifully done. What a lot of time, patience and work she must have put into it.” —Cousin Lesley Shand.

“The page is beautiful. I think some of the cousins are wonderful, don’t you. The poems that the Jellyman cousins write really help you to be good.” —Cousin Grace Stevens.

“Cousin Betty, on August 17 I will be seventeen —and I have an idea. My idea is to revive the Fitful Fancies. Do you think there would be space, Cousin Betty? I know what an agony it must be for you to squeeze everything in, but I hope iat some weeks there may be just a tiny, little comer that is of no use to anybody, that the Grandmothers and Grandfathers in the page may have for themselves!” —Cousin Lesley Shand. •*» * ■ - “How long is it since we had a magazine, Cousin Betty? Don’t you think it would be lovely if we could have one this year. lam sure we could sell an awful lot of them as hundreds of people are interested in our work. What do you think of the idea, Cousin Betty? I think we might make a nice little sum of money to help those less fortunate than ourselves.” —Cousin Lesley Shand. • * * * “There was one Cousin whose name did not appear in the Intimacies Page, and who perhaps deserves recognition more than any of us do, for her work is not written on paper in ink. The Cousin to whom I refer is Cousin Chrissie Peterson. What a cheery, staunch girl she is, facing such a terrible ordeal so unflinchingly, carrying on with her wistful smile, amid troubles such as we have never experienced, nor even imagined to exist. We all grow fond of a girl with a winning smile, even if she has never had a worry; but there is more to be admired in the girl who can smile through suffering and sorrow. Her work will be recorded somewhere far beyond our world and its newspapers.” —Cousin Constance Fox.

“What a Springlike Winter we have had here this year. Weeks of fine weather, mild, warm and in every way just like Spring. The old thrush seem-

ed to feel the spring in the air, every night and morning he whistles all the different tunes he knows. It always sounds cheerful, I think, to hear the birds whistling. The dotteral has returned- much earlier than usual. _ 1 wonder if it is a sign of a —od spring. I always think the starlings are very proud of themselves. They always look perfectly groomed, every feather '.ere .'t should be, and polished till it has a metallic sheen. Watch him as he struts about, and you will notice what a bustling, braggadocio „ sort of fellow he is, or fancies he is.” —Cousin Alma Dorricott. ♦ ♦ ♦ • “I’ve been bringing a new colour scheme into my bedroom. When _it was first papered I chose a white, with pale pink roses strewn across, and at the time I liked it. But with the passing of the years my tastes have altered. So have the roses. They are, or rather were, a hideous colour since they faded and altogether were getting on my nerves. It’s not very pleasant to wake up each morning in a room full of withered roses, so I set to work determined to effect a change. I papered the walls myself with mother’s assistance and the first roll I quite enjoyed. But then my arms began to ache and the paste dropped into my hair and eyes and the walls grew longer and broader till I despaired of ever finishing. But now it’s done it looks charming. I chose a lovely sunshiny colour that makes me think of spring. The curtains are soft and creamy and the bed-covers on the little beds of my sister and myself are a sort of golden-yellow The. floor, however, is yet unchanged. It is still the rosy patterned linoleum that I thought so lovely when I was little, and I must admit that it doesn’t exactly fit in with the rest of my colour scheme. But I will soon be having it a deep, rich brown and then the transformation will be complete.” —Cousin Catherine O’Brien.