THE WENDY HUT OUR CHILDREN'S CORNER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 23, 27 January 1934, Page 12

THE WENDY HUT OUR CHILDREN'S CORNER

‘ROSEMARY’ REPORTS WEATHER JUST LIKE WINTER. Aly Dear Wendy,—Here I am again, still alive and well. I suppose you had forgotten all about me, but I haven’t forgotten you, AVendy, as I still read your pages every week. We have “Daisy Chain” home with us now, as she has been under the doctor’s care for six weeks and is unable to work. I have not seen “Thistledown’s” letter in your pages lately, but I suppose she is busy like the rest of us. “Guy Menzies” is working for our neighbour now. We are having awful weather here and it is just like winter. I am going to “Golden Sunset’s” on Tuesday for a few days. The Tutaenui Old Girls’ Tennis Club gave a dance on Friday evening and we had a great time. I wish they were held every week. I know about 200 of our Ites. There were some lovely stories in the Christmas issue. As I have no more news and it is nearly bedtime, I will say good-bye and a happy 1934 to you and all your Ites.—From “ROSEMARY.” C.AV.K., Marton. You are a dear to pay us such a welcome call this Letterland Day, dear. I began to despair of ever hearing from you again. Poor “Daisy Chain,” I hope she is soon better. Wretched to be ill, isn’t it? The weather hasn’t been a bit like summer, has it? AVhat a large number of our clan you now know. I am pleased you liked our Christmas issue.—AVendy. “WINTER ROSE,” SO LONG ABSENT. SPRINGS SURPRISE. CALL. Dear Wendy,—Here I am once again. I have only written once since I joined, so I thought I had better write to you again. AVe are having rain here. Yesterday we went to the bush for a hike with our Girl Guide captain. AVe had to light a fire and cook sausages. AVhat a lot of Ites we have in our clan now. but only a few write. Where have you gone, “Samboite”? I have not seen your letters in for a long time. I know quite a number of the Maxwell Ites now. ‘‘Nokomis Max ” I am on your track. Are your initials G.AV.! Doesn’t ‘ ‘ Madcap ’’ write good letters? I always read them for they are so interesting. AVe are milking 29 cows now and “Emily of New Moon” and I both have to help. Well, I must close now.—Your Ite, “WINTER ROSE,” Maxwell. AVhat a wonderful surprise, dear. I wondered and wondered whatever could have happened to you this long time. AVhat a happy time you had on hike. Perhaps one day our wandering Ites will return. Old members, numbering quite a number, have popped in lately. It is lovely to see them again, too. “Madcap” wields a talented pen, indeed. Write again soon, won’t you?—AVendy. “QUEEN OF THE ANGELS’’ PAYS WELCOME CALL AFTER ABSENCE FROM RANKS. Dear AVendy,—Just a line to tell vou I am still alive. I have been a lazy girl. AVhen the holidays started I had to clean out my doll’s house. I have passed into standard 3. AVe have shifted away from Wanganuj and are living at Rangataua. 1 have missed all my nice swims this year because the water is too cold. “John Hop” and I had a few but we have whoopingcough now. We have 14 little ducks. Every tine day I have to take tihem down to a. swimming pond. I have three chicks. Your loving Ite “QUEEN OF THE ANGELS,” Rangataua. I am so pleased to have your welcome letter, dear. I began to wonder whatever could have happened to vou. Bravo! So you passed. That’s splendid, and I am so proud of you. IDear, oh. dear, whooping-cough of* all things! I hope you and “John Hop” are soon well again. The ducklings are dears, arne’t t'hey?—AVendy. LUCKY “ALERT’’ RECEIVES GREAT MANY FESTIVAL GIFTS. Dear Wendy,—l hope you had a happy Christmas and New Year. “Slowcoach” has gone for a holiday and she is staying at “Kim’s” place. I miss her a lot. For Christmas I received a great many presents, some of them being a chocolate Father Christmas, a face flannel, with some soap, a thimble, with three sticks of chocolate', a balloon, a box of lollies, a big box of paints, a Christmas stocking and a pair of stockings. “Slowcoach” and I had a Christmas tree. I will be in standard 4 when school re-commences. Our examination was easy. Aly total was 443 out of 600. Well, dear Wendy, I think I will close as it is getting late. Love.—From all.—‘ ‘ ALERT, ’ ’ AVendymere. Thank you, dear, I spent a very happy time during the festivities. I hope “Slowcoach” spends a happy time on her holiday. AVhat a nice lot of gifts you received. How well you did at the end-of-the-year test. Your teacher must be proud of you.—AVendy. “THE WITCH MUST HAVE TAKEN THE UTIKU ITES AWAY,” SAYS “SIMPLE SUE” Dear Wendy,—Here I am again in the Laud of Alake-believe. I suppose you thought the Witch had taken me away. I won three prizes at school one for attendance, one for industry and our usual prize. I gained my swimming certificate for 880 yards. I think the AVitch must have taken the rest of the Utiku Ites, don't you? The weather is very wet up here, but it does the garden good. Your true-blue Ite, “SIAIPLE SUE,” Utiku. So pleased to have you in our midst this dear. 1 wondered and wondered whatever could have happened to you this long while. How splendid to gain those prizes. I feel immensely proud of you. Yes, I believe the Old AVitch has run off with those Utiku Ites of ours. Let’s hope the weather will improve before summer is gone and the winter comes.—• AV end

My dear Children, — Phew! but hasn’t the weather been warm? The Weather Clerk is to be praised for his thoughtfulness towards us because, sad to say, the school bells will soon send forth their call to study again. How time does fly when holidays, such as those now almost concluded, have been such jolly ones. However, now that they are nearly over I hope you will play while you can, for when you commence your first term of this new scholastic year I want you to do so in a right good spirit. I want you to go forth determined to attain percentages you have never managed to gain before. Do you think you will be able to do that? I imagine so. And now, cherubs, because you are setting out, not only upon another year of study and attainment, but upon another year of life, I want to bring before your notice a spirit that will help you to overcome all the problems besetting your pathway. The method by which I introduce my subject will be by medium of a dream, and because of which I paid a visit to Dreamland at the invitation of our friends, the fairies. Let me commence with: “In my dream I wandered within the doors of an old grey chapel. The holy building was filled with an infinite peace, silence and shadows. Before the altar were gorgeous flowers, and above them burned an unflickering red light. It seemed to me as though those flawers would never fade, but retain their beauty eternally, and the lamp that burned so steadily would never go out. It seemed as though it had burned so for ever. And now, as I looked about me in my dream I saw these words, “The ploughman shall overtake the reaper.” Next I heard a voice from near the altar which said, “Look at that light. It is kept burning perpetually. It is the symbol of undying love.” The voice ceased; the red flame before the altar shone clear and unchanging. Again the voice continued. I. .. . “Let the light always burn. Let it give light to the outcast, and guide the feet of the wanderer. Love is a joyful sacrifice. It is only love that counts. Love that survives. There may be a thousand things around us when we die, good and evil, but the thing we carry beyond is that lamp that we have always kept burning and never suffered to go out. Sometimes it has been difficult to keep it alight m this world of many failures. It has flickered and almost gone out. We must pour out all we have to win it, sanctify ourselves by self-sacrifice, before the gift can be ours. We must give, without measure, not counting the cost; rejoicing m the power to give. It is then that the ploughman overtakes the reaper, for ploughman and reaper are one. Love, divine, unconquerable, eternal. . Here, children, I awoke. The sunbeams danced into my room, and outside I could hear my friend, the thrush, singing his morning song. With me there remained a confined thought; but gradually recollection came, and I remembered the journey I had taken to Dreamland, and of the strange vision I had seen. Such a dream only the fairies could have given, and so dears, that is why I have told you all I saw and heard; because to me that light that burned so steadily, and which was the symbol of Love, is akin to the love that i binds us together in our happy I .and of Letters in bonds stronger than I the truest and strongest steel. The fire that glowed so redly is but the spirit of Love dwelling in our hearts. We must ever keep it burning, as it has, since first our Hut opened wide its doors to admit its jolly troup of’laughmg boys and girls, and grown-ups, too. I Let the lamp burn on as it has; let your hearts that have always ibeen filled with thoughts for your less fortunate brothers and sisters, imprison within its warm depths, the generous thoughts that have made lots, so hard to bear, easier to cany. Let the spirit of companionship, kindliness, and love guide your feet along the pathway every Ite of Make-believe Land seeks to follow. The love of a Wendyite is invincible, ennobling and undying! But, my dear little tinies. All this will be much too hard for you to read and understand, and so I ask your daddies and mummies to tell you m simpler words the meaning of the dream the fairies gave to me. Until next we meet in our Land of Letters, I send all my warmest love and kisses, from your ever affectionate, — //end if