THE WENDY HUT

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE WENDY HUT

JGIRLS OF LONG AGO. MARY-aNN. ■ ' . Mary-Ann was just, seventeen. She was always getting into trouble, because she. was always doing things she should not ihave idone. She covered her ears with - ker hair when she ought to .‘have left them'bare; she .took long steps'when she walked;.and she would often say she was hungry! Of course, it was not "nice’’ for a young lady to refer to her appetite, and Mary-Ann’s Mamma despaired of making her genteel. ■ When Mary-Ahn asked why she could not play cricket, and when she bathed in the river at' the bottom of the garden with-’ ‘out her stockings, her papa was so shbekedthat he.decided to.lite in London? 1 London wohld tone down'Mary-Ann!,. . For two months London kept Mary-Ann in a state of mute . ■ arhazement, and then she saw a nejv fashioned, public conveyance , called am. ..The day -after she saw an omnibus, ; heri> Mamma, told her that a /young gentleman was coming to dinner, and she hoped her good little daughter' would play her piece on the piano afterwards. Mary-Ann blushed, and the thought of playing her piece to the young gentleman so worried her' that she put on her hat, and went out—alone! . ■ By the time she reached the end of the road she felt wicked. Then, seeing an omnibus for the second time, she thought she might as well be more wicked^till, and ride on the top of it! The driver grinned, the conductor gaped, and the two horses seemed to snigger'as Mary-Ann climbed, on. There was one young gentleman sitting'.on. the' 'top, and he looked so • amazed • that she was overcome with shame and’thought she would get down ... again. But she could not get down because of her crinoline.' So the young gentleman helped her, and she nearly laughed, and then the young gentleman offered her his arm and said he must escort her home. • I A So Mary-Ann went home on the,young gentleman’s arm, and he explained matters to her Mamma. Now he happened to be the young gentleman who was coming to dinner but he didn t come because he thought Mary-Ann much too modern, “I'don’t care,” said Mary-Ann.. But she did really—-and she learned to crochet antimacassars that she might have one tTacly; like 1 ’ accomplishment! ; - > '