For the CHILDREN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17832, 28 April 1926, Page 6

For the CHILDREN

TE MAORI HAS SHARK FOR BREAKFAST.

SUCH A SURPRISE. Joan played her scales six times, then she stopped. How she hated the piano! “ Oh you little beasts,” she said to the notes. “ Please-, please.” cried a tiny voice Joan stared at her music in surprise. The notes had turned into little people and they were climbing up and down j the lines. One poor little fellow was limping. “ You played me wrong twice,” he said. “ I’m a flat, and you will turn me into a sharp. It’s so painful.” “ What’s ,the matter with, you?”

Joan asked a little white fairy who was sighing. “ You hurry me so,” she said. “ I’m a minim, and 3 r ou always turn me into a semi-quaver. I’m slow by nature. I can’t hurry up like a semiquaver. It tires me to death.” She wejit on speaking, but Joan wasn’t listening. She was attending to two crotchets who were rubbing their heads, i “ Don’t dot us,” said one of them, looking her straight in the face. “ It takes our breath away. I like to keep my own place and not be biimped into the next bar.” “Dear me!” said Joan haughtily. | “ I am a rest,” said a gloomy .voice.

“so please let me rest. What do you always hit me for?” “ I don’t touch you,” said Joan hotly. “ Come, come! ” said the treble clef so reproachfully that all the notes scrambled back to their places. “ None of us mind, I hope, being knocked about a bit when Joan can’t help it. It’s whejn she doesn’t care that it hurts.” “ Oh, do be quiet, all of you,” cried Joan. “Joan, come to tea,” said her mother’s voice. “Tea-time already?” murmured Joan. Before she went she said to the notes. “ I’ll do my best next time.” And I really believe she did. Last time I went to sec Joan's mother, I heard somebody playing the piano, and th 6 sounded just as if they were laughing.