CHILDREN'S STORY.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16096, 20 September 1924, Page 14 (Supplement)

CHILDREN'S STORY.

THE PIXIES' BALL.. (By "L.") Muriel sat on the top of a high cliff, overlooking the sea. It was a summer's evening, and the birds were bidding one another good-night, for it was their bedtime. It was quite Muriel's bedtime, too, only she had slipped away from the house out on to the cliff to look for fairies. Nobody had seen her go, so Nur9e could not come and take her to bed. Muriel had hunted in every bush, and had not seen a single sign of a fairy of any kind. She had sat down at last, and said to herself in disappointment: "I do believe that after all fairies are just make-up people, as Nurse said."

"Make-up people, indeed 1" said a sharp little voice beside her. Muriel looked up in astonishment to see who was speaking so crossly to her; and there, sitting on a stone, was a little man, dressed In brown, and holding a daisy for an umbrella. "Hurry up, hurry up!" said the brown man. "We shall be late for the ball."

Muriel gazed at him in wide-eyed astonishment.

"Who are you?" she gas,ped. The little brown man seemed much surprised. "Dear ( dear; tutt-tutt, do you mean to say that you do not know who I am? Why, I am Hexamex the Pixie, and come to take you to the ball in Pixieland. I have put on my best suit, and I have selected the best daisy, to shelter me from the dew, for I am going to dance with the Queen. Now, hurry up', there is no time to waste, for the Queen of Pixieland is most particular about her guests being punctual at her parties." Muriel rose to her feet.

"Now take my hand and shut your eyes, and we will be in Pixieland in a jiffy," said Hexamex. Muriel obeyed, and before she had time to make another remark, the brown man said, "Now open your eyes." They were in a huge cave; the floors and walls were of polished mother-of-pearl, and the whole, place was lighted by glowworms. The cave was full of pixies, elves, brownies and gnomes, and fairies of every description, all talking at once. "Dear me, dear me," said Hexamex, looking at his watch (which, by the way, had no hands), "we are three twenty-ninths of a minute late. What will the Queen say?" Muriel remembered wondering however he could tell the time when his watch had no hands, and then everything seemed a muddle, and everyone began to dance at once. A gnome with a long white beard and a croky voice caught both her hands and twisted her and twirled her round the room at a dreadful rate.

She saw her friend, Hexamex, flying past with the Queen, and as he passed he said: "Be sure to enjov yourself."

Faster and faster they went until the whole cave seemed to turn round, and her partner kept remarking to her, "I have a very sore throat, a very sore throat indeed."

Muriel was so giddy that she did not seem able to think, and then, suddenly, despite his sore throat, her partner began to sing.

It was not a musical voice, by any means, and she was just going to gasp out, "Are you sure you will not injure your throat?" when the ball room, her partner", and the other dancers all faded away, and she found herself again on the cliff, and Nurse was asking her angrily how she dared to come on to the clff by herself at that hour.