For the Children

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16584, 17 November 1921, Page 9

For the Children

ATOP THE HURRICANE DECK. Rob stood at the foot of the trim little ladder leading to the hurricane deck, looking up and listening intently. He was waiting for a. lull in the wind, now whistling a galo through the top structure, masts and wires of the ship. He- had just slipped away from table in the great dining-room several decks below, gulping the last spoonful of his ice cream and not waiting for what he called the “trimmings,” the peppermints and so on. A windy deck and a heavy sea were better than trimmings any time, and besides, he had just been reading “ Treasure Island. ’ and how could he help being out in the gale with the ship plunging? Then came the lull he waited lor. He listened and heard the sound he hopecLto hear—the sputter of the wireless. Jerry was ” sending.” Now you might think it strange that a hoy like Rob should call the wireless operator on this great, vessel “ Jerry,” but in the four days they had been at sea they had become well acquainted and that explained it. So to the sputter of the electricity, Rob sprang nimbly up the ladder, and once at the top. ran across the deck where a tiny little white box of a room had been built. It had round porthole windows which looked now in the dusk like reddishyellow ball?, from the light within. Rob knocked at the door and entered. The operator, with the receiving wires clamped over his ears, winked at him by way of saying “ hello.” “ ’Lo.” returned the boy. and sat down on the edge of the red plush covered bunk where Jerry slept at night. But he sat there only a minute, for up jumped the operator almost at once, removed the clamps from liis ear», and cried : “ Com© along. Hobby, my boy. come along outside and you’ll see something." And he pulled down hard over liis head the cap he took down from its hook on the walk and took the boy bv the hand. Outside they stood in the lull force of the gale, which was so strong that they leaned back over to keep from being blown back. But it was fun. and it was beautiful, io see the foamy tops of the waves as they raced towards the boat. “There, do you see that'” and Jerry held the boy close to him and pointed slightly towards the stern of the boot. “ Lights!” he shouted above the wind. ” Eight miles away, about. Sister ship of this one, and 1 vc just been talking with her.” Rob looked and saw above towering wave crests, intermittently as the ship rose and fell, a little row of orange lights .far astern. They looked great, and staunch, in spite of the heavy .sea. And that boat- was just like this one, for sister ships were const rur-ted exactly similar. Rob stood looking, and thinking how wonderful

it was for two snug ships like these tvn, eight mile* apart, to be talking together through all this blustery weather ifnd through the darkness. just or though Jerry and his friend the opei a tor on the other boat were sitting iu the Qsarne room. As he thought this. Jerry leaned closer to him and shouted in his ear: 4< She’s just come from the Mediterranean, and says it is warm there, and the orange blossoms are out.’’ And he laughed, and Rob laughed, too, because here where they were it was not like that at all- -Terry went back la hi* room, but Rob re mallied out on the deck watching the lights of the distant ship, and wonder ?ng whether there was another boy on board it- who had picked orange bios soots along the Mediterranean. SEA GULLS. We re the sea gulls who follow th© ships far out to sea. Any day you may see u s on the wharf, waiting for a boat to start. The passengers on board lean over the rail to watch us What clumsy l«gs they have.” says one: • Look like stuffed birds." sa> ?- another “"Wait till you see them fly.’ says a third i ter than the rest. Me hear the engines throb and beat, the siren calls, the gangway is 1 lifted and slowly the boat glides out across the watei. There—now she is well on her v. ax. Yellow*Beak flaps liis wings and is after her, and one bv one we. follow. All boat* travel slowly, some mor a slowly th.iTi others, but by long prac tice we have learned tp follow the?-" all. Sometimes the young gulls race ahead and leave the ship far behind, but that is foolish, lor the man in the white cap throws out food to us, and we must be there to watch for jt as it. floats on the water behind the boat. So, easily we fly over the white path cf foam which every ship leaves behind her. Me hover with wings quite still ; we flap them lazily and cross from side to side, we snqr high up above the shin or rest upon the water. It is all child’s play to us. Thirty, forty, fifty, sometimes a hundred of ns follow a large boat and the passengers 1 crowd together in the stern to watch ns. There are no rude remarks about our legs now, for w# stretch them straight out underneath our tails when we fly. ‘ How graceful they are,” says one. “ See their grev wings tipped with black,” says another. £i How cleverly they light upon the water." cries a third. By and by a piece of driftwood come* floating by and throe, four, five of us perch -on that and go off for «r voyage all our own. but we must not all desert the for who would amuse the passengers then !- and the cook it's a pity his food should all be wasted.