THE GOOD NEIGHBOUR.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 68, Issue 5, 15 May 1944, Page 391

THE GOOD NEIGHBOUR.

’’UTESTERDAY I went to a birthday -*■ party. I don’t know when I have enjoyed myself more, though no special effort had been made for my entertainment and it was not a grown-ups’ festivity at all, despite the presence of quite a few adultsseveral mothers, two grandparents, an aunt by proxy and a proud father. You see, my host had just attained the important age of five and was celebrating the occasion with due dignity. We played all manner of games —Hide and Seek and Oranges and Lemons, Farmer-in-the-Dell and Nuts in May, and finished up with a most exciting Treasure Hunt. Then we decked ourselves in gaily-patterned paper hats and went in to tea. The “Ohs” and “A hs” of the young guests as they viewed the decorated table, the appetites with which they reduced its party fare must have more than repaid my hostess for her efforts. Besides the jellies and trifles there was an enormous cake made entirely of ice-cream with hundreds and thousands sprinkled on top, and even Master One-and-a-bit managed his spoon well enough to consume two helpings. Then came the birthday cake itself in all its glory of pink and white icing, and the candles were lit and the childish voices sang “Happy Birthday” and everyone made a wish before the tiny, glowing flames were puffed out. \ As I watched that shining ring of eager little faces in the candlelight I thought how worthwhile it is to bring happiness to a child, and what power is given into the hands of parents to make of childhood a joyous emblem, jewelled with delight and laughter. We cannot shelter them from the trials and sorrows of later life, but while they are small and in our care we can surround them with love and gladness so that they will have an unshakeable faith in goodness, truth and beauty with which to face whatever the world brings. For children are “the hope of the world and of their homes; they are the mirrors in which , older and sadder people see a bright reflection of their own earliest selves; they are the clean pages upon which the future may copy our fair past”

First Time “Show a two-year-old the full moon and stars for the ‘first time’ and you share its amazed wonder, as if it had made the night sky new for you yourself again. So it is with the ‘first seaside,’ the ‘first Christmas Tree’—the heaven that lies around the child illumines your own horizon, so that your world has a rebirth, a spiritual renaissance.” "“Sylvia Lind.

“People of Importance” ’HOSE of you who have read that J[ delightful book “Important People” will need no introduction to the pencil drawings of J. H. Dowd. John Drinkwater says of them: “They catch with unerring skill the grace of childhood in repose and movement, its lovely poignancy, its inimitable, yet unconscious, humour.” So it is with the greatest of pleasure that we welcome the companion volume, “People of Importance,” with its vivid portraits of children in all stages of development —as tiny babies, lusty toddlers, older brothers and sisters; children in all manner of surroundings—quiet hayfield and city street, at the circus, the beach, and the playground; children eating, sleeping, walking, playing. One section is devoted to “country faces” and there are some fine sketches of country scenes and animals. Brenda E. Spender has supplied the text with sympathetic insight into the world of childhood. She writes, “The child has an imagination hardly limited eX?en by the lack of knowledge or experience, for it is wonderful what original but satisfying use the smallest child, building an imaginary world, can make of facts and fancies which one would hardly have guessed had: ever come within its ken. They can be great generals or queens milkmen —with all the proper accessories merely at a wish; they can own castles where no grown-up sees anything but a newspaper with holes in it hung up across a corner of the nursery, or drive flocks and herds before them on the strength of a couple of battered toy animals.” The delicacy and charm with which she portrays the inner life and adventures of the very young remind one of Katherine Mansfield. Life is full of toil and trouble, Two things only stand like stone: Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own.

—Lindsay Gordon.

Five- Candle®

You often hear people say, “I would like to buy a bicycle” or a doll or whatever their choice“if only I had the money.” They quite overlook the fact that so many of the things which give children pleasure take very little money at all. See how a toddler will cling to a battered rag animal or play with a few pegs and a pot-lid while a more expensive, toy is often pushed aside and forgotten. THOUGHT and TIME and TROUBLE: these are the greatest cost of that priceless heritage which is the birthright of every boy and girl-a happy childhood. Geraldine Ross has expressed this very aptly in her verses “For Mothers in Wartime”: “We must remember to read fairy tales, To buy small boats with brightly coloured sails, To bake plump, crunchy men of gingerbread, And press a warm kiss on a sleepy head. .... We’ll keep gay ribbons tied, and soft hair curled, While we march staunchly toward a better world.”