FOR THE CHILDREN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17218, 8 December 1923, Page 4

FOR THE CHILDREN.

LOST IN THE MIST! “ Ralph,” said moth er, one af-ter* noon, “ I wish you and Olive would run down to Mrs Green's cot-tagc with this bask-et. There is some tea. and su-gar, eggs, and a nice cake for the claild-ren! ” “ Oh, yes,” said Ralph. “ And I promised to take John-nic Green a pic-ture-book ! ” “ And I will take one of my dol-lies for Kit-tie!” de-clared Olive. “She has on-lv got one, and that has lost its head! So I will give her my,,wax dol-lie that she likes so much! ” “ That will make them both very hap-py!” said moth-er, as she kissed them good-bye, and watched them run-ning down the path, with Sailor try-ing to help Ralph car-ry the bask-et. It was quite, a good walk to the Greens cot-tagc, which lay rigfit at the end of the long lane lead-ing to Deerleap Woods. To reach the lane you had to go a cross the wood-en bridge ov-er tho mill stream. This was a fav-our-ite place with both the child ren, who loved to stand there and watch the great wa-ter-wheel turn ing slow-ly round, and the swift-run-ning wa-ter foam-ing un-der it. The mill was work-ing this af-ter-noon, and the great wheel turn-ing and cregk-ing, the wa-ter roar-ing un-der it and rush-ing a-way down to the river in curbing, twist ing waves. Sailor liked that just as much as the child-ren, and he rushed back-wards for-wards a-lopg the bank snap-ping at the spray, and chas-ing the great white bub-bles that flew by on the wat-er. The child-ren for-got all a-bout the bask-et for the time, as they were busy watch-ing Sailor’s an-tics, and raced up and down with him. They might have gone on. play-ing longer still if Ralph had not sud-den-ly no-ticed that a white mist was com-ing up. “Come a-long, Olive!” he shout-ed. “ The mist is ris-ing! If it gets thick we shall not be a-ble to reach the cottage ! ” They ran off, but the mist ran fast-er, and be-fore they had got t& the lane it was all a round them. They could on ly see the trees close by them. “Nev-er mind I” said Ralph. “We shall get in-to the lane in a min-ute, and then w*e shall on*ly have to go straight on.” Sailor kept close by them, as if he knew that they might have troub-le, but as he, of course, did not know where they were go ing, he could not guide them. So they kept on, as Ralph thought, straight to wards the lane, when they near-ly bumped in-to a fence which seemed to go right a-cross their path. “That’s funny!” cried Ralph. “I nev-er knew a fence was here. Then where can the lane be?” -*They stared round, but by now the mist was so thick they could scarce-ly see each oth-er. “ We must have got off the path,” Olive said, as she clung tight to Ralph's “ Then the lane must be just o-ver here, said Ralph. “We are sure to come to it. Hold tight!” He stepped out bold-ly, de-ter-mined not to show Olive that he -was getting a teen-y bit a-larmed, for they could not see any-thing ex-cept this white mist all a-round.

But Olive couldn’t laugh, and felt much more like when Ralph stopped, and then cried out joy-ful-ly: “Hur-rah! There’s the sound of the wa-ter-wheel! \\ e come right back with-out know-ing it! We will —” He stopped with a sud-den cry, as he seemed to step op to no-thing, and in-stant-ly his feet sank in-to cold wa-ter, and he knew he had fall-en in-to the mill-stream. In her sur-prise Olive had loosed his arm, but in a mo-ment Sailor had gripped Ralph’s col-lar, and tried to drag him up. “Help! Help!” cried Olive, with all her strength, as she knelt down and tried to get hold of Ralph’s arm. ff Hold on! ” Shout ed a deep voice. ‘lm coming! Where are you?” “Here! Oh, come quick.” Here I am, lit-tle lass! ” cried the deep voice close to her, and thq next in-stant Ralph was seized in a strong grip and lift ed up in safe-ty out of the rush-ing water. “Aqd it’s luck-y that Sailor got hold of him. Said the milder, as they sat in his warm, bright kitchen. “He must have been quick to do it! But you may feel pret-ty safe when he is with you! ” And ?o the child-ren thought, as they went home lat-er on, af-ter the mist had cleared. THE BOOK READER. Oneo upon a time there jived a little girl whose name was Daisy Gertrude. And she liked reading books better than anything els© in the world. And the book that she liked reading best had a very beautiful kind of picture on the outside of it. And the picture happened to be a little girl looking over the top of a book at a mouse. And whenever pt’oplo wanted Daisy Gertrude to cjo anything, she used to say that she was sorry that she coulcln t because she wanted to go on reading. And it used to make the people who wanted her to do things very angry, and they wished that she would leave off reading. But Daisy Gertrude didn’t mind at all. and she used to go on getting naughtier and naughtier until the people who wanted her to do things did not know whatever to do. And they wondered how ever they could stop her from reading. And they tried taking her book away, and they tried smacking her when she read it; but Daisy Gertrude always used to find it out where they hid it, and she always used to scream so loudly when they smacked her that they had to put their hands over their ears to keep the noise out. Then did they think that they would smile nicely at her, and argue and give her some very nice- chocolates, so that she might leave off. And Daisy Gertrude ate very happily all the chocolates, but when there didn’t happen to be any more left she went on readme, and would not leave off at all. Then were the people who wanted her to do things very sad. and they went out for a walk so that they could get cheerful And while they were out for a. walk Daisy Gertrude sat on the floor and read And after she had been reading for seme time she heard a very funnv noise, and she looked up very quickly over the book to see what it. was. And there before her, just like the picture on the book, vss e mouse. And it twinkled with its nos© and looked very frightening. Tlisn was Daisy Gertrude very terrified. and she veiled with her voice and promised herself that she would never lead such a lot again, because she thought that the mouse had come right off the cover of the book. And when the people that wanted her to tlo things came back they were verv surprised and thankful.