For the o o Children

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17343, 16 July 1924, Page 11

For the o o Children

FLAME. One dark night Flamo cams to Five afc the top of a tailed candle, which stood on a, shelf in a workman’s cottage. Flame was a bright, lively, dancing little fellow, hut he had one failing—he was always hungry. Tho moment he was born he began to eat tho tallow of which his candle house was made. When he was about an. hour old he spied a little moth flitting about, tho room. ‘‘Gome here and let us play together,” ho called : and the poor, silly little moth fluttered down to him. There was a. sizzling and a spluttering; and the little moth ms no more 1 How nice that moth tasted!” said r laino to himself, ‘‘but 1 feel more hungry than ever. T wonder what else there is to eat. Ah! here comes Breeze through the window. I shall taste her.” , Breeze overheard Flame s words, and Jaughed. “Ho! Ho!” she cried. Foolish little Flame thinks lie could make a meal of me.” Then she took I‘lamo by the collar and gave him a good shaking. “ Oh. don’t be so rough. called out Flame. ”Tf you com© near me again 1 shall eat a great hole in you.” Thinking that she would teach Flame a lesson. Breeze gave him a push which unluckily threw him against some papers lying on the shelf. Alas ! Flam© began at once to eat up the papers; and. as he ate. he grew taller and taller, until he was able to reach a lace curtain hanging above him. There was nothing he liked better than a lace curtain; and. in the twinkling of an eye. he ate it up, growing meanwhile to a tremendous size. Breeze tried once more to punish him, and, faking hold of the great, strong fellow, she threw him against the wall of the cottage. As soon as Flame touched the'Vail, he began eagerly to lick it. The wood tasted so good that be went on feeding upon it like a. starving beast. The workman and his wife came running into the room. and seeing Flame writhing and twisting like a great, red dragon, they rushed out again in terror. “Fire! Fire!” they screamed. Breeze, also, was afraid now. and she flew out after them. Flame went on devouring tho walls and ceiling, the table and chairs. ft- seemed as if nothing could satisfy his great hunger. Then Flame saw men and women running up with buckets of water, and he felt thirsty. Swish! Swish! Down came tlie water upon him. and eagerly he drank it. He was surprised to find that, while eating made him grow larger. with drinking lie became Smaller. He had no choice now, however. Bucketful after bucketful of water was thrown over him, and he was forced to swallow it, all the time shrinking and shrinking in size. At last, to his dismay, he found himself reduced to little more than a tiny red flicker. The cottage, of course, was burned to the ground : and the poor workman came along with the last bucket of water. Splash ! A cloud of smoke and steam ! The little red soot of light faded quite away; and that was the end of Flame ! A FANCY. The Rose in the garden slipped her bud. And she laughed in the pride of her youthful blood. As she -thought of the Gardener standing by: ‘‘He is old—so old—and he soon will die !’’ The full Rose waxed in the sweet, A.nd she spread and spread till her heart lay bare : Anil she laughed once more as she beard bis tread : •‘He is older now—be will soon be dead ! ’ But the breeze oT the morning blew and found That the leaves of the blown rose strewed the ground: And he came at noon, that Gardener old. And he raked them softly under the mould And 1 wore the thing to » random rhymeFor the Hose is Beauty; the Gardener Time. Austi n Dobson. WINDOWS OF GOLD. Tommy lived in a house on a hill in the country. There were very few houses, and no school, near l\js home: so he was not often able to play with other little boys and girls. One house stood on another hill a long way from Tommy’s home. When the- sun was setting. Tommy used to gaze at that house. He thought that a fairy princess must live in it, because the windows were made of gold and diamonds. They sparkled and shone so brightly that Tommy’s eyes blinked as he looked at them. One day Tommy thought he would go to see the house with the beautiful windows. He ran off down the dusty road, and then began to climb the steep hill. He was hot and tired when he reached the house at the top. Walking very shyly up to the front of it, he looked hard at the windows. They did not seem to be bright or shining now Indeed, when quite close, he saw that they were just plain glass, like any other window. Poor Tommy sat down on the grass, and felt very like crying. Then a little girl came running round the corner. She stopped when she saw Tommy: and then, walking slowly up to him. asked if he had come to play with her Tommy said “ Yes.” He did not tell her about the windows he had come to see.

The two children soon made friends. Tommy had a happy time, looking at die little girl’s pet lamb and brown calf, and playing with her toys. At last the sun began to go down behind the hills; and Tommy knew that it. was time to go home. ‘ I really came to see your windows." he said as he was going. ” I thought they were made of gold and diamonds, but they are only plain glass.” “ Oh, yes, our windows are only glass ones,” said his little friend, “ but I know a housS with lovely windows of gold and diamonds. You have come to the wrong one.” She took Tommy up on to a little hill, and pointed to a. house a long way off. The windows were flashing and shining, like fire. There was no doubt that they were real diamond windows in settings of gold. Tommy gazed at them for some time. Then he looked

| at the house, and the way to go to it. I He opened his eyes in wonder when he i saw that it was his own home! ; ** Good-bye,” he said to the little girl • and ran ofiF. It was dark when he j reached home, and the light of the i lamp and the fire shone through the 1 window. His mother was glad to see ■ him, and asked him where he had been .so long. “ I have been at the house • over on the other hill,” said Tommy. | “ T thought that it had windows of gold ! and diamonds, but it is our house that I lias the beautiful windows all the time, j Did you know that, Mother?*’ ! Tommy’s mother smiled at her little } bo3*. She thought how true it is that i we always think that other people have j the best things, while, all the time, we 1 have them ourselves. | JOAN’S PIECE OF SILK, j Joan’s mother gave her a piece of \ pretty white silk to be made into a ; frock for her doll, Nancy. Nancy had \ ll °f had a silk frock before, -loan felt ( tiio soit silk, and watched it shine in tho sun. How lovely Nancy would look when she was dressed in that! Joan's brother. John, was a big boy who seemed to know everything. IVhen Joan showed him her piece of Eilk lie said. “ Some old worms made that) silk. Joan. ’ Joan, did not like to think that ugly old worms had anything to do with her pretty silk. She went to her mother, and asked if John was right, and she told Joan how silk is made. hirst of all. a man gets some silkworm eggs, which are very small, 3'ound, yellow things. Ho puts them on trays, and covers them with paper or cardboard. ;n which little holes have been made. « The eggs ar© kept hi the right heat, and in a short time the hatch. The man then sees tiny grubs, or silk-worms, creeping up through the holes in the paper. As they crawl through the holes they scrape the shell of the egg off their bodies, and come out quite free. These baby silk-worms are very hungry ; and they are fed with the leaves ot a tree called the mulberry. They eat and eat. and grow so fast that their skin becomes too small for them. It splits open, and the silkworms crawl out with a new skin on their backs. They do this four times. When born they are only little specks, but in eight weeks they grow into big, grey grubs, longer than Joan’s middle finger. While the silk-worm is growing, be form© two tubes along the side of his body, and fills them with a sticky fluid. At last the greedy fellow stops eating. It is now time for him to make a cosy nest and go to sleep. The nest is called a cocoon, and is made from the sticky fluid. Two tiny streams of fluid begin to flow out from the silk-worm’s lip. In In a clever way, known only to itself, the sillc-worm makes the fluid into a. very, very fine thread of silk. 3t moves its beau round and round, and winds the thread of silk round its body. It winds and winds, until it is quite shut-up in the soft case of silk that it has made. Then the silk-worm’s work is over, and it goes to sleep in its cosy nest. It the nest is not touched, in two or three weeks a pretty little moth will bo seen creeping out of it. Jn its sleep the silk-worm has changed into a moth! It, however, the owner wishes to get the silk, of which the cocoon is made, lie does not wait for the moth to come out. It eats through the silk and spoils it. When the cocoon is ready the man heats it, and so kills the silk-worm sleeping inside. He then puts the cocoon into warm water, which melts the gum holding together the threads of silk. Next he finds tho end of the thread, and unwinds the whole cocoon. The silk thread of that cocoon, and of many others, is then wound on to a wheel. All tho silk threads are then made clean and pure by washing and boiling. Machines comb the silk, making the threads straight and smooth and even. Then, when tho threads are ready, other wonderful machines weave them into a piece of silk, just like Joan's piece. When Joan’s mother had finished her st-ory. Joan was quite happy about tho silk being made by worms. They might be ugly, but. they were very wonderful little fellows. Joan told the story again to Nancy, who heard it all with wide-open blue eyes. John had heard his mother’s story too, and said that he would like t-« keep some silk-worms. Mother paid that she would get 3 him some silkworm eggs, and he could try. They bad no mulberry tree, but he could feed 'his silk-worms on lettuce leaves. John was delighted, and went off to look for some lids of cardboard boxes to make trays for holding tho eggs. We hope that be was lucky with his eggs! THE FISHES. How very pleasant it must be For little fishes in the sea! They never learn to swim at ail; N It came to them when they were small. “Swim out like this,” their mothers cried, “ Straight through the water, foam, and tide.” They waved their fins and shook their scales, » And steered their little rudder tails ; Already they knew what to do—--1 wish that I could do it too. —ALICE F. BROWN. (In ” The Teacher's World.”) A FOOLISH FROG. A littie frog rushed up to his father one day with his eyes nearly popping out of his head. “Oh, Father,” he said, “ I have just seen the biggest animal In the world. It was as big as a mountain. It had great horns on its head, and its hoofs were cloven.” Pooh ! ” said the frog. “ that was oniy Farmer Brown’s bull. He is not so very big. I could make myself as big as he is.” Then he blew end blew, 1 and swelled himself out to a great size. “ Was he as big as that?” he asked, panting for breath. “ Oh, much bigger,” said the little frog. The old frog blew and blew again* puffing himself out, until he was like a huge balloon. “Was he bigger than that?’ he asked. “Much bigger still.” said the little frog, stai-ing in wonder at his father. Once more he blew and blew and blew, and swelled himself out bigger and bigger and bigger until—fie burst! Pride comes before a fall, •