LAVENDER’S LADIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19515, 2 March 1935, Page 16 (Supplement)

LAVENDER’S LADIES.

Edney, the headmistress of.Sheldon School, paused to take breath, and the girls, who filled the large hall h to overflowing, listened eagerly for her to resume. “So you all understand what kind 'of articles you must make if you are to have ’this sale of work. As I havo said | before, I do not approve of bringing your parents and friends here on purpose to buy a number of useless odds-and-ends, which, in these days of financial stress, they really cannot afford. I know that you wish to keep up your subscriptions to the blind children’s home, and I will do everything that I can to support you; but—remember —every article placed on the stall's must be something that someone cannot do without. As a final encouragement, I will subscribe a pound to tho stall displaying the best selection of useful articles." Her speech terminated in an outburst of clapping led by the head-girl, and the girls filed off to their formrooms. Now that thq ; proposed sale of work had been discussed officially, interest rapidly increased. Film-fans and yo-yo champions found themselves taking back seats, while knitters, needlewomen, and cooks stepped Into their plaoes. Lavender Shortridge, owner of the second desk in the fifth row of the Third Form, came rapidly to the fore; for her skill with needlo and cotton was the envy of most of her form--7 mates on needlework afternoon, when the mistress for that particular lesson it was more than usually hard to please, i. ' "What aro you going to make, ■ Lavender?" demanded the Thiidformers In chorus. “I say, Lav, can you think of some- . • thing that I can make, that won’t show Ink stairi3 directly I look at it?” ’ "No; It’s impossible!” Lavender replied ’emphatically to the last questlon; and to the first: “I don’t think I’ll tell anyone what I am going to do.” “Oh, Lavender!" protested her nearest neighbours, but further remarks had to be stifled, for Miss Howl- ard entered at that moment to take a '•5 history lesson. , when Miss Edney had commenced ■.- talking about the sale, Lavender had deoided instantly what she would contribute. She would make lavender ladles like the one she had given her mother, and which now stood m an honoured position on Mrs. Shortridge s dressing-table, and they should be the most daintily made contributions in tho whole room. Everyone would come and admire them, and buy; while the stall that displayed them should be tho envy of Hie rest of the school. Lavender spent a delightful hour planning the dresses for her ladies, when v sho ought to have been studying! Queen Elizabeth’s altitude towards t "■ religion. Lavender had discovered these fasc- ■' mating lavender ladies during the last holidays. One could purchase, in china, the top portions of these ladies; that Is, head, shoulders, arms, painted bodjccs—everything, all in one piece down to the waist, and at Hie waist were two holes by which the top half of the lady could lie secured to l*ic lower . h ilf. The lower half was Hie interesting part. You cii! a round of stiff cardboard and covered it with an old piece of material so that it. formed the fiat •base of a lug. The bag, which was to ■ form the base of a crinoline skirt, you stuffed with anything that you did not want, such as snippings of material, shavings, sawdust, elc.. but round the sides you put lavender —as much lavender as you could spare. 'Then you drew up the top of the bag, sewed on the china top, and if necessary, fastened it securely with a little seeeotine. •pii,. i.-„|y was then ready for her skirl. Here, the hits of gaily coloured silk and ribbon. Hie dainty pieces of tare, or liny uiTitleial Powers from discarded ha! sprays and bill (Oil-holes could he hrou.-lil oul or pieeohags, and the mosl delight I'd dresses made. p.v the end of the lesson. Lavender had planned Ihe dresses of nearly two dozen ladies. \s Ihe mistress for the next, lesson demanded written work, however, she was obliged to give her attention to one straight line slanding

(By Phyllis I. Norris.).

upon another straight line, and proving that the angles thus formed added together make two right angles; xvlfloli all seems very involved when you have only Just started geometry. Two days before the sale, when it had been arranged that the work should be brought and catalogued for the ■appropriate stalls, Lavender had completed her fifteenth lady, and spent the last sixpence, of her pocket-money on a smaller head for a smaller lady. As the smaller lady was exquisitely dressed In a shimmering white crinoline and little pink rose buds, she was as proud of her as of any of the rest. She brought them all-in two large oardboard boxes, and arranged them •carefully on her locker. In a few seconds half the school was struggling to come near, and Lavender's lavender ladies were the sensation of the moment. "Whloh stall are they for?” asked a small girl somewhat breathlessly, for her head was pushed between the bodies of two older girls. Everyone stopped talking, and looked at each other. "Which stall?” was the question that floated round the room. "I thought the needlework or the art,” said Lavender modestly. The elected heads of both these stalls were there in person. “I don’t think they would do for the needlework stall; perhaps the art ” said Marion Potter, the needlewoman.

“They wouldn’t do for the art, I’m sure,” exclaimed Denise fl’albot, the ■opposition head, hastily. "They are lovely, but they aro not useful.” Lavender gasped. "Oh, but they are. They smell lovely, and they make the house look so pretty.” "But that’s not usefulness.” Lavonder was astounded. “Won’t either of you have them?” she asked. "I’m afraid we can’t; you know what Miss Edney said." Lavender’s cheeks flushed. "Well, you needn’t then I" she said disgustedly. "I’ll ask Miss Howard if I may havo a stall of my own.” Miss Howard was the form-mistress for the Third, and to her they took all their trials and difficulties. She was very sympathetic over Lavender’s ladies. “You've made them so beautifully, it -would really be a shame not to offer them for'sale," she said, as she examined each lady in turn. “Of course, it is impossible to force the stall-holders to have them, and I really am afraid that these contributions cannot be consider useful. Utility is the object of this sale; didn’t you realise that?” “Well, I did. but I never really thought about it,” Lavender admitted. "I don’t know xvlint to advise you to do. Can you think of anything yourself?" (To be continued next week.)