MARGUERITE’S SATURDAY MORNING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 18 (Supplement)

MARGUERITE’S SATURDAY MORNING.

It was Saturday morning. Marguerite peeked out from under the bed covers and blinked her eyes in the bright light. The sun was fairly dancing on the wall. Saturday morning! Marguerite gave a little shiver of delight and crept-down further under the bed clothes. If she kept very, very still, maybe Mother would forget she was there entirely and she could sleep and wake up and sleep and wake up again. But after a while the house seemed so strangely quiet that Marguerite sat up in bed and looked all around her. A fat robin hopped to the window sill and cocked his perky head at her for an instant, as much as to say: “ Get up, you lazy girl! ” Marguerite sprang out of bed. She ran to Mother’s room. There was nobody there. There was nobody in the bathroom, nor the guestroom. Even Grandma’s room was empty. The strangest feeling crept over Marguerite. Was she really all alone in the house? She didn’t want to stay in bed now. No, indeedy! She hurried into her clothes as fast as ever she could. There was nobody in the kitchen. The breakfast dishes stood unwashed on the table,, and a pan of oatmeal was sitting on the back of the stove. It smelled slightly scorched. In the dining room the table was still set, but there were toast crumbs on the cloth. It looked rather messy. Somebody had upset a salt cellar. Marguerite hurried through the hall calling “ Mother, Mother.” There was no cheery answer in reply. She looked out on the porch. At the far end sat Grandma, crocheting quietly. “ Oh, Grandma! ” cried the little girl, “ I thought everybody had run away and left me. Where is Mother? ” Grandma patted her cheek kindly. “ Daddy took Mother into town with him,” she said. “ Strict orders were left that you were to stay in bed as late as you pleased, but when you did get up, you must catch up with the work. But here you have stolen a march on me, and are up and also down?” Marguerite laughed. “ I don’t want to go back to bed, Grandma,” she said. “ But you stay right here, and don’t you move, please, until I say, ‘ Come.' ” Grandma laughed this time. “ All right, but no pranks.” Marguerite rushed back to the kitchen. She spooned out some oatmeal, poured out a glass of milk and started to eat her breakfast. But what a face she made at that first mouthful of burned oatmeal!

“ Serves me right, I s’pose,” she said, “ for staying in bed so late.” So she ate the oatmeal, and also a dry piece of bread, and drank the milk. Then how she did hustle! She brushed all the crumbs off the dining room table and stood the salt cellar up straight. It was hard to get the tablecloth folded nicely, but she tried folding it in the creases and that worked pretty well. She put the crocheted centerpiece that Grandma had made right in the center and the fern dish in the center of that. Then she stood off to admire it. Still, the room didn’t look just right. “ It’s the chairs,” thought Marguerite. They were all pushed about helterskelter as the family had left them. She put them in their proper places. Now the room looked neat and cozy. In the kitchen she scraped the dishes and piled them up as Mother had taught her. Then she filled the dish pan with hot water, using the soap shaker vigorously until the water was all frothy. “ Glasses first,” said the little girl, picking up two. “ You go in there and get clean.” The silver came next. Then the dishes. All were given a good rinsing, too. After everything was washed, even the towels, Marguerite put the dishes away and tidied up the kitchen. She was all through and scampering out to the porch to say “ Come ” to Grandma, when an automobile honk, honked outside and stopped in front of the house. “ Is my little girl awake yet? ” called Mother, running up the steps. Marguerite rushed out and threw her arms around her mother. “ Come in and see what I’ve done,” she cried. Now t . when Mother saw how neat dnd clean the dining room and kitchen were, she hugged her little girl and said: “ Get your hat and coat now. We are going to Auntie May’s to spend the dav Grandma is coming, too.” “ Oh, goody, go'-'-lv,” cried Marguerite, bounding off. As she nulled on her coat, she kept thinking, “ S’pose I was still in bed and they had all gone without me! Brrrr! I’m always going to get up extra early on Saturdays! ”

THE KITCHEN CAT. I wish I had some rabbits in a little rabbit hutch, They have such funny habits and I love them very much. I wish I had a squirrel or some white mice or a rat, But the only pet that I can have is just the kitchen cat. I wish I had some tadpoles to see them grow to frogs, I wish I had some puppies or any kind of dogs. I wish I had a guinea pig or any thing like that. But the only pet that I can have is just the kitchen cat. I wish I had a pony or a donkey of my own. I’d like to keep a baby lamb till it •was fully grown. Mum savs it’s no use wishing, ’cause we live in a flat. And the onlv pet that I can have is just the kitchen cat.

GRACE HOOPS. Have you ever played with grace hoops? I do not suppose you have, but it is a game your grandfathers and grandmothers used to play when they were little. You may make a set of grace hoops for yourself quite easily. Choose three straight willow branches about two yards long, and bind them together. Each player requires two of these wands. For the hoop you will require willow branches just a little longer than those used for the wands and these should be curved into hoops and tied firmly. For the game two players stand a good distance apart. Each player holds her grace hoop in her crossed waflds, •and, spreading the wands quickly, tosses the hoop to her partner, who must catch it with one of her wands, and return it in the same way it was tossed to her. Two hoops are kept going at once. The game got its name from the fact that it made the players agile and graceful.