For the o o Children

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16750, 3 June 1922, Page 15

For the o o Children

Once upon a time, as all good stories begin, you know, Tom Silver was a , part of a great mountain out in the State of Montana. To be sure, be was a very small part of it, so small that for a long time ho lay quite undiscovered by anyone at all. b\ lion finally ho had been found out- a bit of silver deep in a rich copper vein, more than a thousand, feet underground - and the miners had son-, him up to the wonderful daylight, tucked away still in the worthless rock where Nature had wrapped him, and the smelter had freed him, he .-journeyed east as part of a bar of* silver bullion for a United States Government mint. When this story opens, ho was slipping from tho jaws of a heavy die, which had just stamped a second shining face upon him Tom Silver had two faces, if you please—and out he popped bright and eager, a new silver quarter along with many, many brother and sister coins and quantities of cousins and second cousins- dimes and nickels and pennies—which the Philadelphia mint was making that day. With 19 other quarters exactly like himself he was rolled in paper as though, lie were a candy lozenge, packed in a box, and sent away on his first auto trip. Tom stirred restlessly and spoke in liis thin little metallic voice- “ 1 say, ’ he addressed his next-door neighbour. “Who are you. if you please, and do you know where we are going!-"’ A FRIENDLY NEIGHBOUR. His neighbour edged a hit closer -in friendly fashion. “Why. I’m a quarter like yourself, you know. I. came out just ahead of you. Don t you remember bumping against me uhen you came out from the die that stamped our faces? T hoped we would bo packed together, for 1 liked your looks and J knew we would lia-ve lots to say to each other later on. Now some coins are so uppish, because they are now and shining, that they will have nothing to do with their neighbours. I like friendly folks, myself.” “Do you Know where we are going ” asked Tom. ■ “I heard the clerk who packed us say something about a bank, whatever that is,” answered the little follow. “ T hope it will be exciting, I'm sure.” “ Well, it won’t be,” spoke up a third coin from near by. “I've been there myself. T’ve been through tlie mint twice. Once I was a dime, but my face got worn so smooth and dull that I was sent back and melted with lots of other worn coins. I was a dime then, 1 ut it is bigger and liner oeing a quarter.” “ What is a dime?” inquired Tom, pleasantly. Tom was one of those people who iiko to ask intelligent questions, and to learn all about a subject beforehand. “A dime? ' replied Number Three. <l Well, it’s different things, that is, it's good for different things, according to who gets you and when. Now, in the spring, a dime is marbles ID agates, 15 alleys, or 50 common marbles, that is. if some small boy has you. If you are given to a little girl for washing the dishes a whole week, perhaps you are an ice-cream soda, or peppermints, or a ctfr ride to the country. {Sometimes you fall ii.to a child’s hank; perhaps you are shaken out next day or perhaps you lie there a long time. Once l fell down a crack in the sidewalk when a small boy was flipping me into the air. I lay there all winter. Finally the sidewalk was repaired; a workman picked me up and T got out into the world once more. f think I shall like being a quarter. One can do things that he couldn’t do before.” THE TRAVELLERS ARRIVE. “ T know I shall like it, too,” said Tom, and just then someone began to take the travellers from their papers. “Hello,” they heard a voice above them saving, “here’s the new issue of quarters. Nice Liberty figure, isn’t it?” Several clerks crowded nrounu to see the coins, which were, indeed, among the first of the new design of 1915. 'Die little friends lay quietly in their places. Suddenly long fingers were thrust in among them. Out came several, and a voice counted brisklv,'

“Twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, one doll nr,” and Tom, with his next-door* neighbour and a couple of others, slipped across a glass shelf into the small canvas bag of a grocer, who had run in for silver coins for change for his Saturday trade. Down, -down Tom fell, making a long scratch across one of his shiny faces, and startling himself. “ Are you there?” he called to his friend. ‘‘ Yes. I'm hero,” was the reassuring answer. ‘‘Don’t be alarmed; well not stay long at the grocer’s. I know.” “AY hot’s a grocer’s?” asked Tom quickly. “Oli. it’s butter, and cheese, and meats, and children coming in to buy milk, with as penny for candies. You'll see.” And just then the hag openedTom took a d ?o > breath and rolled over in relief. “ Oh,” said a child’s voice. “What a pretty rent!” The grocer 1 coked at it. “Us twenty-five cents,” lie said, kindly. “ Here, yon may have it as change. It i c a shiny coi.i.” THE FRIENDS ARE SEPARATED. Tom had barely time to say good-bye to his -brother quarter, before lie was shut tight with two dull copper cents into a. small fist and hurried along the street. Tie grew warmer and warmer, and was glad, indeed, when at last ho tumbled forth on to a clean scoured + 01110. beside a loaf of bread and a head of cabbage. “ Isn’t it a pretty cent, Mamma?” tbo child was saying. “ May I have it to play with?” “ Not that one, dear.” Tom heard the mother answer. “ Why. see, it’s one of the new quarters. That moans 25 .cents, you know. AYould you he willing to run back to the store again for three eggs for our cake? You may have a cent to spend for yourself. Here’s a quarter to pay for the eggs.” So Tom Silver wont back to the grocer’s. Into the brown tili, behind the counter, bo fell jingling. There was plenty of company here—copper cents, nickels (Tom lad not known about nickels before), dimes in a round little place by themselves, and more quarters like Tom, though none- so bright and shining. Farther back in the drawer were a number of green papers. “ Those are dollar bills,” said a friendly little coin. “They think they are better than we. for they will buy more things. But we go travelling of ten or,” he added gaily, and just then his own turn came. OFF ON A NEW ADVENTURE. Presently Tom was called on to make chango for a new bill which came in. Out he hopped, eager for adventure, and, sure enough, one was waiting for him. into a lady’s pocket-book he went, finally to he taken out in a pretty suburban home and "examined with interest. “Oh, Rose Mario,” he heard someone call gently, and Rose Marie came skipping downstairs, all dimples and smiles and six-year-old happiness. “ Yes. mother, dear,” she said. “Here is a new quarter Air Benson gave me in change at the store. Would you like to go shopping with me in town this afternoon and spend it?” Rose Mario jumped up and down with delight. “That will be lovely.” she cried. “ May I play with it till then!'**' So Tom Silver and Rose Ala no «siijoyed each other till luncheon time, when Tom I>y beside her plate and watched her eat. 'Then, in her wee purse, he started for the city. He did not mind the subway trip, for Rose Mario held him close; but, once in the shopping district, out lie came to be r.dmired once more iti her small hand -and then, suddenly Rose -Marie stumbled over a sidewalk grating, and out went Tom Silver from a warm little hand and down, down into the dark opening below ! “ Oh, Mother,” he heard his littlj owner cry. “ it s lost—mv new quarter !” “Never mind, dear.” was the quiet reply. “We can’t get it there. You shall have another. Don’t mind.” So Rose Marie and her mother went on, and Tom Silver lav very still