THE CHILDRENS COLUMN.

Thames Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17804, 1 February 1930, Page 7

THE CHILDRENS COLUMN.

Last week, when we left each other, you will remember that Connie the Chimp, had decided to stay with us —and so far as I could see she looked like staying!—while Mummie Bodgers Bear had taken herself and her bit of the Bear family, to say nothing of the tent,’ off to somewhere not very far distant, after having advised Billy and Fluffy to be friends with the Chimpanzee. Well, we spent our time unpacking and arranging our, things, Rosemary meantime talking of nothing but the latest arrival, and when it came to tea-time, in walked the Master and Connie with him. Said the Master, to everybody in general:

“This is thef fellow to clean ears!” Connie smiled broadly, but reminded him: “Connie 'Chimp. ' Girl — not fellow!” adding: “Connie clean cars, clean dishes, clean everything! Give Connie drink and she’ll wash up !” ' - , ( The Master, assisted by Rosemary, gurgling with joy and excitement, gave 'Connie a basin of tea and about half a loaf of bread and butter. I was afraid she would sit down at the table, but she .settled herself happily on the rug. Meantime, Billy and Fluffy—also on the rug, and eating hard —moved away from Connie ‘when they heard her say that she washed “everything.” They were between taking their mother’s advice to be friendly and a

A WEEKLY FEATURE.

fear that they might come in for a scrubbing. , I called Cook up and asked her where her kitchen-maid was, because it looked as if Connie was going to help in the kitchen. Cook said the maid had gone while, we were away, and before I could say anything, else, Connie the Chimp, had picked up a tray, and like lightning, switched all the tea-things on it and carried them out of the room, repeating, “Connie wash up!” Cook said: “Well ’’ and then went purple. I started to explain, but the Master interrupted and said: “If she washes up like she washes the car, you’ll be all right!” And he wouldn’t let me tell him that you couldn’t wash up., cups and saucers by turning a hose on them! Later on Connie came back and said: “I’ll wash the big cats now!” (Those “big eats,” I.must tell you, were Billy and Fluffy, so you can imagine the awful expression on their faces. I’ll tell ypu the rest next week). , '

*'“GREATER LOVE . ;• . .” —’ ■ j From the fishing fleet of Aberdeen comes two stories of two brave fishermen. The first of these was Robert Chettleburgh, skipper of the Strath - leven, who was in trying to rescue his brother, the mate. The trawl-net had been fouled by a rope as the crew were hauling in, and in the rough sea the mate was tripped up and carried overboard. As he staggered, his brother flung his arms around his neck to . save him; but in vain. The flying rope dragged them both with it into the’ heavy sea. . ' The crew threw out lifebuoys, and the skipper, grasping one, passed it to his brother. The second lifebuoy fell short. When the skipper, in his heavy sea-boots, strove to reach it he disappeared. In the gale the crew launched the small' boat, and, after three-quar-ters of an hour of pulling, got up to the mate. He was lying across the buoy unconscious. He was delirious when at last they got him aboard. But the brave skipper never more was seen, and the, fisherman who tells the tale added a word which adds a strange note of grief to the tragedy. Aff the whilg that the brave man wife was drowned was in the water he never spoke -a word nor called for help. The second story from this fish--1 ing fleet is from the trawler Strathlochy, which was in the storm of the next day. She came back into port with her skipper mourning the death of his father, whom he had tried to save, and tried in vain. A sea had struck the trawler, carrying the trawling gear overboard just as it was being: hauled in. It nearly dark, and ‘by the feeble light of the ship’s lamp a man in yellow oilskins could be seen floating on the water. The skipper kicked off his bo'ots, but with all his clothes on went over the side and swam strongly to the. fisherman who had been wrenched overboard. He reached him. It was his ow,n father! The crew threw a line, the skipper caught it, and, still holding his father, was hauled in toward the trawler. Just as the crew were preparing to haul the two aboard another heavy sea struck the ship and the swimmer. It wrenched the father from the son’s grasp. He sank, and was seen no more. The skipper was nearly unconscious when hauled aboard. The Strathlochy cruised about for a long time, trying to find the man who had so nearly been saved, but the man was never seen again.

A SILVER HORSESHOE. In a little quarry at Stanhope, in Durham, workmen, hewing out stone, have brought to light two fascinating relies of bygone ages. One tells its own story; the other is a mystery. _ •• That which tells its own tale is a collection of trees turned to stone. \Ve .know what that means. Ages and ages ago they lived and 1 died, were covered over with soil and mud, and in slow process of time began their journey tdw&rds the change from wood to coal. Something checked the conversion. There must be pressure to produce coal from trees, and perhaps there was not enough pressure for these trees, so they became fossils* gradually absorbing and partaking of the nature of the mud in which they .lay. And as the mud hardened into solid rock, the trees hardened to. The other relic has a more human interest. It is a bright silver horseshoe, found nine feet deep in

the shale

Nobody uses silver horseshoes now;, nobody makes horseshoes of this antique pattern. All that the learned men who have seen it can say is that it is a relic of pagan days. But that does not fix anything like an age. There have been men in England, not greatly different . from some present-day types, for a million years. The metalworking men came in centuries and centuries before "Cae&ar. To what part of that time belonged this rich man who shod his horses with silver? Perhaps we shall know some day.