THE CHILDREN’S COLUMN.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17678, 31 August 1929, Page 7

THE CHILDREN’S COLUMN.

You will remember that we left Rosemary going to sit “all alone by herself without anybody else,” to write Jier darling Monkey’s story for “The -|rk.” At the time I only had in hand the story of Mummie Bodger’s Bear, ; so I told Billy and Fluffy that they also had better, go and sit by themselves and see what they could do in the way of getting ready for our great magazine, especially as Billy had taken on some extra work for the other animals. Rosemary picked Monkey out of his corner and said: “You come with me,

a WEEKLY FEATURE.

t ducky! 1 shall want to hear your very interesting story all over again if I am to write it; and perhaps you might I make it a bit more lively this time!” j So off they went. I don’t know if you remember, but long ago, when ! they were sitting round the lire telling stories, Monkey told a very sad | one about himself and his family; how they all strung their tails together to cross a river, and—l am speaking from memory, beacuse it was a terribly long time ago—he was the only one left after they all came unstrung. It seems as if he cheered up a bit

for Rosemary, because this was what my young woman (in spite of all the money I have spent on having her taught to <yspeH) called: “Monkey’s Few Tail.” (f think we must excuse her a little bit because her mind was more or less on his “tale” of his “tail,” if you understand what I mean; and I trust your mother won’t write to me about muddling up your spelling!) Well, this was his tail—l mean tale. “I am the only kind of monkey who looks like I do. I was not born in Russia like Billy, but in Africa where all monkeys ought to be born. My family was a. very nice one. and I didn’t haye any brothers and sisters or they would be here with me, because this is a lovely home and

Rosemary is a nice, kind little girl. When my father and mother died at the age of one hundred years I came away in a boat rowed by a kind sailor who said he would get a good home for me, and here I am.” (Rosemary explained that sh e let his parents live to a hundred “so as not to make him cry”!)

THE stork ON THE ROOF. One day, in the north of a German province, some 'children ' noticed a pair of storks nesting in the roof of their house. Their home was in a lonely part of the country, where friends were none too many, and the children’s delight was great when one of the storks allowed them to make a pet of her. But when autumn came the stork made ready to wing her way south, and the children, sorry to see her depart, wrote a little note and tied it with some ribbon round the bird’s neck. In their note they said that the stork was. a great pet of theirs, so would the people in whose country it spent the winter be very kind to it and send it back in the spring? The following day the' stork set off on her long journey. Then something wonderful happened, just like a fairy tale. On a warm day in early spring the stlork returned to Germany, and to the nest of th e year before. The children soon found her and were delighted to find another note tied round her neck with a different coloured ribbon. This was from a missionary in an outlying region of the Sudan, who had befriended the children’s pet. He had been very pleased to see the care they had tauten of the bird, and he hoped the kindness they gave to the stork might be extended to the little native waifs under his care, who would be glad of a little help with clothing and food. It is beautiful to think that children in countries far apart can be

brought together by the friendliness of a bird.

TOES AND HEELS. This is quite an amusing race game to play with your chums. Stand side by side, and at the word “Go!” move forward by placing the heel of one foot close in front of the toe of the other, so that they touch. Then place the rear foot in front, and so on. The one who reaches the winning post without over-balancing is the winner.

DO YOU KNOW?

1. Is a potato a vegetable or a tuber? 2. Why does a stick appear bent when standing in water? 3. What were the seven wonders of the world in the Middle Ages? 4. Why has a carving fork only two prongs? 5. Why some envelopes have designs inside?

Answers, 1. Both. Vegetable is strictly a terms for any member of the plant kingdom, but in common use it means a part of a plant, leaves, root or stalk, which we cook and eat as a savoury dish. The potatoes we cook are tubers of the plant.

2. Because the rays of light reaching our eye from the part of the stick which is in the water are bent, and the stick appears to be in a position that it is not really In. This action of light in changing its direction as it passes through different substances, from air to water, for instance, is called refraction.

3. They are reckoned to be the Collosseum at Rome, the Catacombs at Alexandria, the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Porcelain Tower of Nanking, and the Mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople. 4. In order that the knife may be impeded as little as possible, and the meat may not be disfigured with too many fork-holes. 5. Because they are so thin and sometimes transparent so that the letter could be read. The design hides the writing from curious eyes.

FISHING. One of the greatest sports in New Zealand is fishing mainly after trout. These fish are world-famous. They are very abundant in most of the rivers throughout the North Island, and one of the most popular fishing resorts is Lake Taupo, not far from Rotorua. AH the lakes near Rotorua are filled with trout; at one stream, known as Rainbow Springs, they are so tame that one may feed them from . one’s hand. ’Here, too, they are noted for the exact formation that they keep—always returning into line and never varying their position. At Whaka, Rotorua’s native village.

is another curious thing in connection with fishing. On one side of a large rock is a cool stream, plentifully supplied with trout; on the other, within easy reach, a boiling spring; and it is possible here to catch and cook one’s food without moving from that rock!

MY NEW SLIPPERS. I can’t! I can’t! I 'CAN’T! Get slippers on my feet; The toes of my slippers And mine won’t meet; I pull and I tug , As I sit on the rug, But they, won’t go in at all No, they WON’T go in at all; My feet are too big And my slippers too small, So I sit in despairOn the best big chair, ’Cos they won’t, There WON’T. Gol in at all. So there! There! THERE!

A GAME TO PLAY. One clay when you are. playing with some of your little friends, and you don’t (fuito know what to do. make

this suggestion. See who can draw tho best with the eyes shut. Oh, dear, it is so funny, and so difficult, toex The best thing to say is, “Now we will all draw a cat.’’ The players all take up their pencils, shut their eyes, and they try to draw a cat on their paper. Afterwards at a given signal—all open their eyes and show their drawings to each other. Tho pictures are bound to cause lots of laughs. Another day try drawing an animal by figures. You know what I mean, six for a nose, and nought for the head, and so on. Make up your own designs and use what figures you like. It’s wonderful what quaint picture* you mn make in this way.