CLAUDIA’S NECKLACE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3792, 7 August 1936, Page 5

CLAUDIA’S NECKLACE

Snip, snip, snip! Stitch, stitch, stitch! Mrs October was making spring clothes for her children. Lovely shining frocks of many colours lay oh her table, ready to be tried on. Little Claudia Cloud looked at them eagerly. Surely one was ror ner. She had worn the same clothes all winter —a heavy gray dress with a coat of fluffy snow that was almost exactly like fur, and a necklace of sleet that anybody might have mistaken for tiny pearls. These things were all very well for winter, but now Claudia drew a long breath and decided that she would choose a sparkling golden dress like the one a little sunbeam was buttoning on. Or maybe the silver one that fitted a tall moonbeam so well would be better. Of course, the green ones were beautiful, but they were all for the trees. And the blue, pink, yellow and red ones belonged to the flowers. “I wonder which is my dress,” she said, standing on tiptoe to peer over the table. "Here it is, Claudia,” said Mrs October. She picked out a dress and held it up. It was neatly made and just the right size, but it was pale grey trimmed with long ribbons of dark gray rain. “Oh, dear, oh, dear, I did want a pretty bright dress,” thought Claudia sadly. But she smiled bravely and said “Thanks, Mrs October, for my fresh new dress.” Hastily she tied up the last gray ribbon and skipped across the room. “My dear,” said Mrs October, looking up from a note she was reading, “there is a garden just below—let me see, what is that address? Oh, yes, it’s just below 43 Blue Street, Southwest Sky. It needs your attention very much. Call a wind taxi to take you there.” • Claudia ran out on the step:! and waved to a wind taxi that was passing by. A moment later she was whirling across the sky so fast that her ribbons flew in all directions. As soon as she saw the garden she knew why Mrs April had sent her. It was such a dry garden! Little bushes and flowers were trying to unfold but they were having a very hard ■time. Claudia unfastened her ribbons of rain and tossed them down. How the thirsty garden did enjoy them! The leaves became greener and the flowers brighter. Claudia could almost see them growing. “What fun this is!” she thought. “I’m .so glad I have a dress with gray rain ribbons.” Just then a crowd of golden sunbeams came flying up. Presently, Claudia realised that all the trees and flowers were looking at her. Stranger still, children ran out of the house in front of the garden and pointed toward her. “Is there something queer about me?” she wondered. “No,, indeed,” answered a sunbeam who was passing close by. “There is something lovely about you. Look at your necklace.” “But I haven’t any”—Claudia began and then stopped short. She did have a necklace which shone with every colour that could be imagined. It was more beautiful than all the dresses in Mrs October’s workshop put together. “What is it?" Claudia asked eagerly, “and where did it come from?” “It is a rainbow,” explained the sunbeam, “and it’s Mrs October’s present to every cloud who does her work well.”