ELFIN PIPERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20509, 29 August 1936, Page 13

ELFIN PIPERS

I SAW A LITTLE SAD TREE I saw a little sad tree And nothing did it bear. I wbnt and bought a coconut And then I hung it there. The birds all through that winter, Came to visit me, And sang their sweetest thanks For the nut upon that tree! (Sent by Mary Sullivan, Ma Waro, and L. Richmond, Willowbridge.) THE BABY TREE To-day in the garden we planted a tree That wasn’t as tall as you are, or me. Some day it will stand up straight to the sky Like a soldier or sentry, and by and by In spring and in summer it will be filled With small fluffy things that will sing and build. How magic it seems such a thing can be, When now it is smaller than you are, or me. (Sent by Joan Shepard, Timaru.) JACK FROST There is a little artist, Who paints in the cold night hours, Pictures for little children Of wondrous trees and flowres. Pictures of snow-white mountains Touching the snow-white sky; Pictures of great wide oceans Where pretty ships sail by. Pictures of rushing rivers By fairy bridges spanned; Bits of most lovely landscapes Like that in fairyland. The moon is the lamp he paints by, His canvas the window-pane. His brush is a frozen snow-flake. “Jack Frost” is the artist’s name. (Sent by Doreen Smith, Winchester.) SPRING

Spring will soon be here, And I’ll be very glad To see the flowers appear, And see the little lambs Scampering in the fields, Beside their dear mothers; Kicking up their heels— Playing with the others. Very happily they play, Dancing round the stack of hay. All the birdies chirp and sing, They’re so glad that ft is Spring. (3 Marks and a Merit Card awarded to Joan Gardner, Waihaorunga.)

SMALL BUT USEFUL The little things of Life sometimes Seem very small to us— Nay, scarcely worth a second thought, Far less a bit of fuss. But scraps of fun and scraps of joy, And scraps of rest and gladness; Like mighty giants fight and kill A thousand dwarfs of sadness. SAND The sand gets in between my toes, And in my ears and up my nose. It creeps into my eyes and hair; In fact, the sand gets Everywhere! And weeks after I’ve left the sea, I’m finding sand All over me. It drops from out my shoes and clothes — I’m always sorry when it goes. WALKING If you follow your nose, No matter where— Wherever it goes It will take you there! So nose and I We started out. We saw more sky Than I knew about; And cows in a shed, And people talking. But nose goes ahead, And I’m tired of walking. (Sent by Joan Shepard, Timaru.) ONCE . .. There once was a rabbit developed the habit Of twitching the end of his nose; His sisters and brothers and various others, Said, “Notice the way that it goes!” And one clever bunny thought, “That’s very funny; “I’ll practise it down in the dell”; The rest said, “If he can, I’m positive we can,” And did it remarkably well. And now the world over, where rabbits eat clover, And burrow and scratch with their toes; There isn’t a rabbit who hasn’t the habit Of twitching the end of his nose. THE TODDLER