WENDY’S DRESSMAKERS

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1932, Page 16 (Supplement)

WENDY’S DRESSMAKERS

PRETTY AFTERNOON TEA-CLOTH.

■Tink has made a jolly afternoon tea cloth for Wendy, and we thought you might care to make one like it as a present for mother. It is a square of plain cream linen, with a hem of printed material, and appliques of tea-pot, jug, and so on, at the four corners. You will need a square of linen with sides about 36 inches long. And you must cut bands of printed cotton for the hem, making these four inches wide; the bands are folded so that the hem measures two inches in width. You will

have to join the strips in several places, to get a, band long, enough to go right round the doth, but if you press the seams out smoothly they will hardly show.

Turn in both edges of the band, then fold it with the right sides outwards, and sandwich the edges of the cloth between. Tack all round, and mitre the corners carefully when you come to them, then sew the hem to the cloth. You can use embroidery thread to match one of the colours in the design, and work the hem in stem-stitch, which will look prettier than ordinary sewing. Now draw on a sheet of paper the tea-pot, milk-jug, teacup and saucer, and sugar basin, to get patterns .or the trimmings. The diagram gives you the different shapes for these, and you must make them about three inches wide and two and a-half inches high. Tack them in place, one in each corner of the cloth, as shown in the picture, and then sew them down firmly with buttonhole stitching in the same thread as you used for the hem. Diagram A shows this being done. Wendy’s Dressmaker. RIDDLES. Why is a sailor like a camel! Because they both live on water for months. , Why are your eyes like a schoolmaster! Because they both have pupils. (Sent by Dorreen Fairbrother.) What do you do when you wear your shoes out? Wear them home again. What has a heart that cannot beat? A cabbage. (Sent by Eileen Bryant.) What is the brightest city in the world? Electri-city. Why is a naughty child like a dusty carpet? Because they both need a beating. What are the most dangerous stars? Shooting stars. When do two and two make more than four? When they are side by side (22). Which is the easiest ‘way to make a chicken run? ■ Chase it.' Why is a blunt knife like a bad joke? Because you cannot see the point. What kind of match box is best? An empty one, because it is matchless. When is a lift like a policeman? When it “takes people up.” What parts of London are found in New York? N and D-

LONG-AGO STORIES. AMBER AND AGATE. Amber lived in ancient Babylon. When she was 13 she fell ill, so, according to custom, her father carr.ed her into, .the street, and' everybody who passed was obliged to talk to her. There had been no doctors in Babylon for many years, and people recovered from sickness as best they could. So Amber lay in the street all day. “Dear me, you look big enough to be strong,” said a market woman as she passed. “Watch the sky till you see an eagle flying north; then tell him to take your sickness with him.” “Eat dates stuffed with heather seeds,” said a rich mercant, as he went by. “The fruit of the oak coiled in water is excellent,” sighed a young noble, looking at the girl. ‘'Oh, drag my mr.ttress out of the sun,” cried Amber. “My head’s in a whirl with everybody telling me to do different things.” “Bad .temper —that’s what the matter with you,” said the young man, pulling her mattress to the shade. “Drink balm water to make you gentle.” “I won’t!” screamed Amber.

Thinking he saw poison in her eyes which would make him ill the young man ran away. Then Amber cried, and

made a great noise, and a lady who was followed by servants came and looked at her.

“It is disgraceful for a big girl like you to cry so loud,” said the lady. “Where do you suffer ?” “Inside,” wept Amber. “If I eat I have pains; if I don’t eat I have pajns. And there -is no eagle to take them away, and I don’t know what to do.” Then the lady took a gold chain from her neck, and hung it round Amber’s. On the chain was a polished agate, and this she put into the girl’s mouth. “Some evil eye has looked upon you, my child,” she said. “Hold the agate in your mouth, and it will make good juices which will tak: away pain and preserve you from all harm. I will take you to my house and feed you on milk and jellv, and soon you will be well.”

Amber was very grateful. She was thankful to be out of the noisy street, and, as neither her father nor her mother wanted her very much because they were so poor, the lady said she would keejf her. Now Amber was an intelligent girl, only bad tempered when she had indigestion. When the lady cured that trouble, Amber was so grateful that she determined to become a healer. “I will teach you what I know, Amber,” said the lady. “But you must study herbs, and try them on yourself to see their effect. You must also learn to cook food.” Years later, when the lovely Amber walked in the streets with her cures, the sick crowded round her and blessed her. DO DOGS FAINT? A little Pomeranian dog was trotting along beside its owner in the Zoological Gardens at Perth, in Australia, when, turning a corner, a white Polar bear confronted them on the other side of a barrier. The dog gave one glance of terror and collapsed in a faint. We do not as a rule associate fainting fits with animals, but there is no doubt that their nervous systems react to sudden shocks as do our own. A typical instance of this i: seen in the scorpion, which is supposed to sting itself to death . when surrounded by a ring of fire. It neither stings itself nor does it sham death. It faints. Spiders and many insects do th< same and the fascination to which animals are subjected by their deadly foes is a form of immobility of the nervous system due to sudden iright. A shock will often cause a momentary stoppage of the heart’s action. This stopping causes a faint, and this is what happened to the little Pomeranian, at the Perth Zoo. WHAT IS THE BRAIN MADE OF? That part of the brain which does the thinking is made up of the bodies of millions of separate nerve cells. It is often referred to as grey matter; scientists call it the cortex. It is very thin, being from one-tenth to one-quarter of an inch thick. In man and the intelligent animals this grey matter is on the outside of the brain, where it can grow; but in frogs, snakes end less intelligent animals, it is on the inside, where it is impossible to increase to any extent. Each of the cells of the brain has its own nerve fibre, and the great mass of these fibres make up the white part of the inside of the human brain. Some of the fibres connect the cells in the brain, 'and others run from the brain to nerve centres in the body, or to nerve cells in the spinal cord. The brain is like a telephone exchange, which gathers in the sensations felt by the nerve zixlllc jxw Iwxdxau