CLOUD THAT COLLAPSED.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 9 (Supplement)

CLOUD THAT COLLAPSED.

Twinkle-Toe had been dusting the stars. There were so many stars to dust —big ones and little ones and medium sized ones. And poor little Twin-kle-Toe was terribly tired He had caught himself yawning several times. So 'he tucked his feather bromh under one arm arid waited Until a fluffy little white cloud came sailing bv. Then, stapling lightly on- to it,'he curled ‘himself vp in its downy softness and fell into a’peaceful sleep. When he awoke the Stars had all disappeared. ' And how cold it had grown! And whatever had happened to his cloud? It had been such a soft, fluffy little thing last night. Now it was hard and stiff and frozen. Twinkle-Toe put down his hand and broke off a bit of it. Yes, you could break off a ‘bit of it, now! TwinkleToe shook his head in puzzlement. He Could not understand it At all. And then, suddenly, the most dreadful thing happened! The cloud fell to pieces. Yes—just like that! Twinkle-Toe was so startled that he had no time to spread his wings. And down, down, down ho fell toward the big, cold earth, “Oh, dear!” gasped the poor little elf. He was falling so'fast now that he could not stop himself. And then he heard human voices—and his heart began to jump. “Look! It’s snowing!” one of the humans said. “What thick flakes!” one of the humans was saying—he . was only very small. “See how they are piling up. Wo shall be able to make snowballs. Twinkle-Toe knew what snowballs were. He had seen the humans playing with them many a time. He was just picking himself 'from the ground where he had landed with a bump, when he was gathered up in a handful of snow and pressed and pressed and pressed. “I am being made into a snowball!’ he gasped. “Oh, dear! And now someone will throw me.” The words were hardly out of his mouth before he felt a jerk —and he was travelling through the air at a tremendous rate. “Whore ever shall I land?” he was wondering miserably, when —bump the snowball hit the bark of a tree and shattered to fragments. And TwinkleToe was out in the sunshine again, feeling rather shaken and terribly cold, but —free! And as he spread his wings and sped swiftly back to Fairyland he made a solemn vow never, never to fall asleep on a cloud again. , THE BROKEN TABLETS. ’■ Zadig was the king’s favourite counsellor and the subject of much envy. Orie day, when walking in the grounds with his friends, he showed them a verse which he had written praising the king’s valour in the war. Having allowed his friends to read the lines, he broke the tablets on which he had written them in two, and tossed the pieces into a’rose bush. A certain minister named Amaze idly picked up one of the pieces. That stone had cracked in pitch a manner that there was a meaning in the broken lines;

By the .deepest wrong Upon the throne affixed In time of public peace This cruel enemy

Amaze felt a thrill of joy. Here his hands was the means of ruining his rival. He lost no time in placing the words before the king, find the unlucky Zadig was flung into prison. But that afternoon, while the queen was walking in the gardens, she noticed what seemed to her to be the fac simile of' the fatefqj tablet. She picked it up and hastened back to the palace. When the two pieces wore placed together this is how they read:

By the deepest wrongs I saw the Earth troubled. Upon the throne affiled the King restored order. Iri' time of public peace hatred alone causes war; .. This cruel enemy alone is to be feared.

The king was delighted. Zadig was reinstated in favour, and the guilty Amaze, fearing lest 'his duplicity be discovered, found it convenient to leave, the country. .