A Little World for Little People

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 33

A Little World for Little People

FRIENDSHIP IS A STEADY LIGHT SHINING IN DARK PLACES

A LESSON IN NEEDLEWORK

“I AM sorry to have to trouble you, Dawn Lady,” said tko Little 1 I bought, “but the Doorkeeper wants to know if you have any coloured silk or cotton. He wants to try that needlework competition, and is without materials. He did have a piece of pink thread, but two impudent riddles have run off with it for a skipping-rope, and last week he lent the Pixie Postmen the only needle he had for a flag-pole. The Joyshop man has promised to teach him buttonhole stitch, without knowing anything at all about it, and the Doorkeeper thinks that buttonhole stitch is an ache that happens in your side when you have been picking too many buttonholes.” “ l can see that it is a case of the blind leading the blind,” answered the Dawn Lady, setting a paper-weight on a pile of stories and picking up her work-basket. “I have some pretty coloured silk here and a new packet of needles, so the Doorkeeper’s worries will soon be over.” “He has pasted the rose on thin cardboard,” explained the Little Thought, “and he is all ready and waiting on the steps of the Place-of-You-Never-Can-Tell.” “Oh, I am not exactly a novice at needlework,” said the Doorkeeper, looking up with a beaming smile and exhibiting a patch on the x-ight elbow of his everyday velvet jacket. “I can do my own mending as you see, even though a patch of different material may look rather odd.” “Particularly when it is done with a tacking thread without the edges being turned in,” murmured the Joyshop man. “My first need is a needle,” said the Doorkeeper, loftily, “and my second, a piece of coloured thread. Yes, this yellow strand will do because I intend having a yellow i-ose. . . . Thank yon, Little Thought, that is au excellent knot. Now, I shall begin here. .. . Exactly what is buttonhole stitch, Dawn Lady?” “You do it by looping the thread round the needle at every stitch,” answered the Dawn Lady. “No, not like that. You are making French knots. Just once, like this. Yes, that is better.” “Dear, dear, the needle has come unthreaded,” sighed the Dooi'keeper. “That reminds me of a riddle: ‘What is the difference between the eye of a needle and the eye of a potato?’ ” “They don’t need spectacles,” volunteered the Little Thought, rather doubtfully. “No, that’s not the answer,” chuckled the Door- .—. n keeper. “It’s this: ‘Yoxx can’t . VQ\ T thread the eye of a potato.’ <t\jD nJ Ccww 1 thought that would catch ► you. Rainbow Wings I” V • —~