DEAREST LITTLE PEOPLE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

DEAREST LITTLE PEOPLE

•> b delighted al the way your good things are arriving X X for our Ship. lam writing this letter to you early in the X * week, and have just been having a most exciting time opening X X mysterious-looking brown /wiper parcels. Rainbow halls, X X jig-saw puzzles, cuddly cloth animals, dolls’ furniture, and * X Scrap-books and More Scrap-books have been tumbling out X of them. They are all lovely cheery gifts, but your Scrap- X | books, especially, are splendid, and you will know the names X X o/ the lucky Prize-winners next Saturday, when we are having X .j. our first Christmas Number. £ X Don’t forget, will you, Little Artists and Writers, that $ X", y° ur contributions for our Very Special Paper, on * X Christmas Eve, must, reach me by next Wednesday. And X * re ' n ,j Z , tlat our better Holiday is not beginning till the X X middle of January, and I will be'looking forward io reading X X v 1/ ] ° Uy letlers telling me how you spent Christmas and X New rear. »:• , have just been watching the greediest young starling X X 1 have ever seen. I was sitting on the edge of the verandah, X X and a billy of scraps had been left hanging on the fence’ X * not jour yards away. The wind had blown the lid off', and X X suddenly there was a whirr of wings and a slim, shining lady X X alighted on the edge of the billy. “Stale scones and X X cake! IChat a meal for my son!” she chirped, and hopped X X in on lop of the food, had a good mouthful herself, and * X then called loudly. There was an answering chirping from X X c ner f rb y tree - a flutter of wings, and she was joined by Master X X ■ slarlln S’ a young fledgling whose flying was still somewhat X * uncertain. Unlike his trim, shining Mother, his coat was a X X-j Srey ’ and he Was a verv f al y° un S gentleman X X indeed He perched on the edge of the billy, looking greedily X X at the food, and then mistrustfully at me, whom his Mother X X I co ' n ph’tely ignored. Several times he was about to fly X ... back to the sheltering branches of the tree, but finally greed * X got the belter of him, and opening his mouth wide, he X X squawked, “Feed me! Feed me!” which his Mother obediently X X / J hurriedly did. The lazy rascal made no attempt to X V jeed himself, but was so greedy he would not let his Mother X eat a morsel, and she might have been stoking him with cake X X and scone crumbs still if my book had not fallen off the X X verandah with a clatter. Squawking with fright and dis- X X a PP r ° val ' Master Starling fled to the tree, from where his X X i,. e f tried to enlice him back to the billy in vain. So, X X foolish creature, she continued feeding him in the tree, flying X X backwards and forwards, and stuffing pieces of cake and scone X into his gaping beak. When I came indoors he was still X X asking for more and she was still patiently feeding him, and X X 1 hoped he would have a very bad attack of indigestion that X night to teach him to X X be less greedy. X X Love to You All, X X FROM YOUR OWN b X