A FINE STORY FOR THE TINIES —AND OTHERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19437, 24 October 1925, Page 24 (Supplement)

A FINE STORY FOR THE TINIES —AND OTHERS

TINKLE AND THE SKY PRINCESSES Tinkle flung herself face downwards among the bluebells. Mummy and Daddy had waved their last good-bye, and gone off in the car to embark on the boat for India, and she—she was left behind. For twelve months, the doctor had said, she must run wild and get the roses back into her cheeks, before settling down to regular lessons. At the end of the year she was to go to school. After a. time the gulping sobs subsided —“They” had told her she must be brave, and, at any cost, she must try and carry out their wishes. Tinkle lay on her back and looked up at the sky. How blue it was! And all around her the bluebells were ing to and fro in the wind. Vaguely she wondered why only tmall parts of the earth had such a

beautiful carpet. Tho whole sky was blue on a sunny day; what a pity the whole earth wasn’t blue too. Tinkle’s eyes were closing, she felt very drowsy—she supposed it was the

sunshine, or perhaps all the tears she shed. She did wish, though, that someone would explain to her why all the earth wasn’t blue like all the sky. She opened her eyes again and then, quite suddenly, she did not feel sleepy any more, but immensely wide awake. Swinging on every bluebell was & tiny fairy person! Presently one of the sweetest of the fairies alighted on the ground at her side, and her gauzy wing brushed Tinkle’s cheek. “Tinkle! Tinkle!” she whispered, standing on her tippoty toes to reach the child’s ear. “Oh! Tinkle, Blossom Princess is so sorry for you. The very minute you started to cry she sent us ofc to try and comfort you. “What are you talking about and who is Blossom Princess? asked Tinkle. The little fairy crept h wee bit closer. “Listen!” she whispered, “and I’ll ’tplain things to you. von poor little Human. Blossom Princess is Fairy Queen’s daughter. She does all the little odd jobs she can ’cause Fairy Queen is so awfully, awfully busy, and

she has decided that for the lonely year, before you go to school, we are to look after you. It won’t be games all the time, ’cause Blossom says you shall come every day to the Fairy School, and tho lessons will be tho answers to the questions you are always asking.” “How lovely! how lovely!” cried Tinkle, “when can wo begin?” At that moment a glittering cobweb coach, drawn by ten lady-birds, drew up on the grass. “Now this very minute!” said Blossom Princess, stepping out of the cobweb coach. Tinkle clapped her hands for joy. “Take your seats in class,” cried Blossom Princess, and Tinkle found herself seated on an orange toadstool, with five little fairies on one side and

six on the other. “Your last-unanswered question,” said Blossom Princess to Tinkle, was • Why do the woods alone have a bluebell carpet, when on a sunny day tho whole sky is a sheet of blue/’ ‘‘Listen, and 1 will tell you the story of the Sky Princesses. “Once upon a time there was a woodman, who directly his work was done, would lie on his back, and gaze and gazo up at the Sky Princess. *‘\ou know, of course, Tinkle, that the blue sky is made of the trains of the princesses. When tho sun is shining, all day long they wtalk up and down, up and down, with their beautiful trains blowing out around them. And when on earth you see tiny things which you call fleecy white clouds ft is because the trains have got ruffled up and show’ a wee bit of the lining. “Well, every day the woodman came to love the Sky Princesses more and more. He forgot his work, he forgot his meals. He spent tho entire day lying on his back gazing up at them. “Now* tho woodman’s old mother was dreadfully unhappy, for she knew that if he continued to neglect his work, his master would dismis him.

The poor old lady sat down and cried and cried. And the more she cried, the less time the woodman spent at his work, and the longer he spent lying on his back and gazing up at the Sky Princesses. “At last the youngest of the Sky Princesses, looking down, took compassion on tho tears of tho poor old dame, and as the days went by, she felt sorrier and sorrier. At last one night, when all tho world was still, she floated down and, bent gently over the poor fellow as lay asleep. “Then very very softly she unhooked her beautiful train and cast it over the surrounding woods. When the woodman awoke, it seemed to him that the whole earth was as blue as the whole sky. Everywhere the beautiful blue flowers were swaying around him. And ho was happier that he had ever been before. “The little Sky Princess floated home, but when she arrived her sisters would have nothing to do with her, because she had lost her beautiful blue train. “Now old King Cloud felt sorry for his little daughter, and so he gave her a dusky velvet mantle of grey-black, with one beautiful star shining on the long train. “This star, he explained, would shine in perpetual memory of the kindness she had shown to the woodman and his mother. “Now the little Sky Princess spent the rest of her life doing kindnesses to other people. And in tho end her velvety mantle was far, far more beautiful than the trains of her big sisters, for every time she performed a little act of kindness another twinkling star glittered on her velvety mantle. °lf you look up at the skv on a clear night. Tinkle, you will see how many thousand little kindnesses the youngest of the Sky Princesses has done since she comforted the poor woodman.” L z .“4 nd . now - Tinkle,” said the fairies, it is time for yon to run to bed, and for us to fly awav hdme. ‘‘You will helar the bluebells ringing to-morrow morning; be sure not to be late for Fairy School.” The little Sky Princess has still another star in her train that night, for her beautiful story had comforted a lonely littlo girl whose mummy and daddy were going far awfay to a distant land. And every night she spread her velvety triain over the skv. and watched over Mummy and Daddv and Tinkle, till the years had passed and they were all together once more.