HONOURS BOARD

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

HONOURS BOARD

BEST LETTERS Senior: Richard and Alton Kemp, “Kaiserhlume.” Junior: “Little Miss Muffett,” Marie Rowe. ■'

THE PROUD BARON OF MONTFORT A LEGEND OF THE ARDENNES. Long ago the Baron of Montfort lived in a magnificent castle in the middle of the forest of the Ardennes, and he thought himself all-powerful. No enemy could stand against him, no soldier could scale the walls of his domain; every evening he feasted, and his troubadour sang songs of his fame and the great deeds he had done. Who should come knocking at the castle gate one day but. one of the strange little gnomes who also inhabited the forest. ; He asked for a night’s lodging, and the soldier at the gate, who had a great respect for gnomes, sent him in to speak to the Baron himself. But the Baron of Montfort burst into a roar of laughter. “Go back to your caves and your rocks!” he laughed. “You . belong there .—I belong here. Keep to your place, earthworm, and I will keep to mine.” The gnome went quickly out; the Baron filled his drinking cup, the troubadour sang, and, for many days, things went on as usual, Then, one morning, the Baron saw four men in armour ride up to his castle wall, and he recognised them as the four knights of the Ardennes. Then the Baron of Montfort 'burst again into roars of laughter. ‘‘Can four knights take my castle?” he shouted. “Take no notice of them; prepare the feast as usual.” So the feast was prepared, and, as the Baron seated himself at the table, the four knights sprang over the wall, which fell in front of them/ and behind them ran a number of little gnomes. “Without your, knowledge we have protected you for many years, Baron of Montfort,” said • the King of thd Gnomes. “Blit now we find that you are ■no longer worthy of your castle.” Sb the knights took the castle, and the Baron of Mbntfort learned that he had no power at all without the help of the little gnomes he had despised. THE LODGER. The tameness of the Paris sparrow, equally with its perky London brother, is proverbial. How intelligently appreciative of human kindness it may bpcome is exemplified in the case of a poor, shivering little fledgling that one morning in spring appeared on the window of the Paris office of a British publishing firm. It had been . making its first attempt at flight, but had become exhausted. Someone took the baby bird inside, put it in a little--box lined with cotton wool and fed it, with the result that it recovered and next morning it was fit to face the world again. What was the surprise of the staff next evening to find the same little sparrow cheeping at the window. Again it was taken in, fed. and warmly housed for the night, and liberated next morning. Since then it has made its appearance every evening, and although today it has grown a strong, healthy bird with a knowledge of the world and its ways, it never fails to return toward evening, and still appreciates the meal it finds on the manager’s table, and the night’s lodging in the little box. OLD FATHER NILE. No river in the world is used so much for helping agriculture as the Nile. Already on the main stream or on its tributaries there are seven great dams or barrages, and an eighth is being made. This last is in Upper Egypt, at Nag Hammadi, about a three hours’ journey by train beyond Luxor to the south. The work Will take three years. Last year it was begun. It is done when the river, is low and can be controlled. The critical time is July, -when the floods come down from the lofty mountains of Abyssinia. The granite for the dam is all brought up the river from Assouan, 400 miles away. The machinery used is British-made. The workers of all kinds number 56 British, 250 other Europeans, 270 Egyptian Government officials, and about 3000 Egyptians. And so, by their efforts, old Father Nile will store and distribute quietly more of his waters along the narrow valley that he fertilises, and Egypt’s population will soon be much larger than it ever can have been in her long history. It is already fourte® millions.