A PAGE for LITTLE PEOPLE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 43, 15 October 1924, Page 39

A PAGE for LITTLE PEOPLE

My dear Little People, This week I have only a small mail, but it is a very nice one, as it brings me tidings that my dear Little People are writing to each other. Also, I have to introduce some new friends who want to join us. Now, isn't that just what we have been wanting, a real live Letter Club with Little People getting letters from each other. As I have a. little more room than usual this week, I will let you read the letters from our new members, before getting on with the story. 42 Douglas Street, St. Kilda, Dunedin, 25th September, 1924. —My Dear Anne, T have at last plucked up courage to write to you. 1 have written twice before and both letters were sent about the time of your great Christmas rush, when all you could do was to publish the names of your correspondents and add two or three words of reply. As that was before the establishment of the Club, I wish to remit my name for membership. I am thirteen years of age and am desiring to discover a. twin who will be fourteen on November 15 next. If I have the joy of claiming such twin, would she let me know by mail right away? However, whether I have or have not such a relation, 1 would like someone to correspond with me. I would like Pearl McNeill to look with favor upon me, as she is the same age as 1. am, and she also obtained her proficiency last year. I am in Form 3 at St. Dominic's College, a place well known to you, Anne. I have already written to Lorna Carroll and am hoping to meet her namesake, Mary Carroll, aboard the "Joy." Anne, dear, I do think it will be interesting to carry on correspondence with someone living out of New Zealand. Well, Anne, 1 cannot enlighten you as to the scenery of Dunedin and as I know not any more news I must conclude. I remain, your affectionate Little Person, Teresa Paterson . (Welcome Teresa, and I'm so sorry you have had to wait so long for a proper reply. I looked up my birthday book and found that Patricia Alice Brocherie, Onuku, Akaroa, and you have the same birthday. But I cannot say if you are the same age. Will you write to one another and find out? Perhaps as time goes on Ave will have more Little People in other lands to whom we can write and get letters from. Anne.) The Valley, Maraekakaho, Hastings, H.B. — Anne, Please accept me as a member of the L.P.L.C. We play Cricket on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and Tennis on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Everything is looking beautiful now, the trees are getting their new leaves. We had a holiday to-day because it is Dominion Day. There are many young lambs up here now. Shearing will be starting soon. I remain, your new friend, Dan McCor- • mack. (Glad to welcome you Dan and I'm: sure some of pur boys will be writing to you. Do you help with the shearing, are you "Fleece-O." Some day we'll be up your way in the "Daydream," and we'll play cricket and tennis. Anne.) Okain's Bay, Banks Peninsula, September 26th, 1924 Dear Anne, Please may I join your L.P.L.C? I have always been interested in the Little People's Page. I am sixteen and I would like to write to Lorna Carroll. We live in the Akaroa parish, have you ever been to Akaroa? It is a very pretty place. Our parish priest is Father Gallagher and he comes and celebrates Mass in our own home. We cannot often get to Mass at Akaroa as it is a long distance and we milk over fifty cows by hand. We were able to get to a mission during the winter preached by a Redemptorist Father (Father McManus) and Father. v Gallagher celebrated Mass here about four weeks ago, he comes as often as he can. I have one sister Kathleen and two brothers Jack and Terence. I have a cousin at Holy

Cross College named Jim Maguire. Do you know him Anne? I will say good night now with best wishes from your now member, Trephena Bernardino Quinn. (We are so glad to welcome yon dear Little Person, and your letter is so interesting. You are indeed privileged to have Holy Mass celebrated in your own home, and I'm sure God will bless you for trying to hear Mass when you have so many cows to milk. No, dear Ido not know your cousin, but I hope he will say a little prayer for me and my Little People, all the same. Write again to me, and write to Lorna. Can-oil if you want to, she'll sure be pleased to hear from yen. —Anne.) Now my dears we'll have a bit of our story, just to the bottom of the page, that's all the room we can get. THE UNKNOWN LAND (continued) At first she used to sing these ditties only when alone, but by degrees she began to let her little ones hear them now and then, —for Mere they not going to accompany her? and was it not well, therefore, to accustom them gradually to think about it? Then the little ones asked her where the Unknown Land was. But she smiled, and said she could not tell them, for she did not know. "Perhaps the great river is travelling there all along," thought the eldest child. But he was wrong. The great river was rolling on hurriedly to a mighty city, where it was to .stream through the arches of many bridges, and bear on its bosom the traffic of many nations; restless and crowded by day; gloomy, dark, and dangerous by night! Ah ! what a contrast were the day and night of the mighty city, to the day and night of the Sedge Warbler's home, where the twenty-four hours of changes God has appointed lo nature were but so many changes of beauty! ''Mother, why do you sing songs about another land?" asked a young tender-hearted fledgling one day. "Why should we leave the reed-beds and the willow-trees? Cannot we all build nests here, and live here always? Mother do not let us go away anywhere else. I want no other land, and no other home but this. There are all the aits in the great river to choose from, where we shall each settle; there can be nothing in the Unknown Land more pleasant than the reed-beds and the willow trees here. I am so happy. Leave off those dreadful songs Then the Mother's breast heaved with many a varied thought, and she made no reply. So the little one went on : "Think of the red glow in the morning sky, Mother, and the soft hazeand then the beautiful rays of warm light across the waters! Think of the grand noonday glare, when the broad flags and reeds are all burnished over' with heat. Think of those evenings. Mother, when. we can sit about in the brancheshere, there, anywhere—and watch the great sun go down behind the sky; or fly to the aits' of the great river, and sing in the long green herbage there, and then come home by moonlight, and sing till we fall asleep; and wake singing again, if any noise disturb us, if a boat chance to paddle by, or some of those strange bright lights shoot Tip with a noise into the sky from distant gardens. Think,* even when the rain, comes down, how we enjoy ourselves, for then how sweet it is to huddle into the soft warm nest together, and listen to the drops pattering upon the flags and leaves overhead! Oh, I love this dear, dear home so much. Sing those dreadful songs about another land no more!" Goodnight Little People. More story next week. Do you like it? Anne. The "Ait" the little bird speaks of is a tiny island in a lake or a river. You've seen them haven't you?—Anne.