Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

22 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

'L--_.---_.--_...---------"C"'…

A GOOD BTR0KE"0F BUSINESS.

HEROISM IN MEDICINE.

A MICHI(MN~YILL^OE IN ASHES.

WESTCROSS, A GLAMORGANSHIRE…

----------PECULIAR TRIAL FOR…

A CHICAGO GUNPOWDER j PLOT.…

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

._-----.:1 VITRIOL WIN vj…

-__---FATALITIES AT SEA.

A WILL SUIT ARRANGED.;

---_-----------SHOCKING ACCIDENT…

EXPLOSION ON BOARD A SHIP.

SERIOUS TRAMWAY ACCI-' DENT…

THE CHILDREN'SHOUE: COLUMN…

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

THE CHILDREN'SHOUE: COLUMN FOR GIRLS AND BOYS. ¡ DY MAGGIE SYMINGTON. Between the dark and the daylight, When the nights beginning tv lower, Comes a pause in the day's occupation That is known as the Children's Hour. Lowjjelhitr. AN INTRODUCTION.—FUTURE CHATS.—OUR PLUM PCDHING.—DAISYPENCE.—CHAUCER'S FLOWER, EYE OF THE DAY.—LEGEND OF THE DAISY.— FAIUIKS AND FLOWERS.—LA MAEGUEEITE.— FREXCH, GERMAN, AND SWIsS CUSTOMS.— ACBOSTICS.—A FKKNCH PUZZLE. It is generally the case that when one person wishes to be introduced to another person, a. third person is called in to present them to each other. But it sometimes happens that no third person is conveniently near to perform the ceremony, and then the first person is obliged to say to the second person," I am so and so, find you are somebody else, let us shake hands and be friends." Now, this ispre- cisely my position at the present moment. Unless we can, just for the fun of the thing, imagine my pen to be a person, there is nobody to present me to you, nor you to me, dear little readers, who- ever you may be, and wherever you may Le. So let us just shake hands and begin at once. I cannot quite tell you who and what I am at this present moment, but once upon a time I was a little girl; and that is not so long ago yet that I have for- gotten what it is to feel like one. I hope you will ¡ discover before very long that I can understand what both boys and girls feel like at times, be- cause it is necessary for us to have much sympath v with each other if I am to do as I propose, and gather you all about me from week to week, and hold chats directly with you. I don't mean to say that I can gather the hundreds of little children who will search this column about me really, but there is a clever fairy called Imagina- tion, who can make these meetings almost as real as if we saw each other face to face. Nor do I mean simply to chatter to you, and nothing more. Under the guidance of this same good fairy we will now and then take rambles abroad, try to learn from the hundreds of flowers and grasses, and may- be, seaside weeds and shells, something about the God who made them. We will try to learn more still from the lives of great and jood men and women who were once little children like yourselves, puzzling out big questions in their little brains, and some- times finding it very hard to be good, just as you lo. Then, when the winter winds blow and the snow lies white on the ground, when we draw the :urtains snugly and gather about the warm fire- side, I hope to tell you of many old and new jamss at which you can play, to set you puzzles of ill sorts, to suggest work for your busy fingers, to Dell you stories,and to talk to you about the doings of men and women whose places in the great world you will have to fill some day, and now and then to set you laughing with some merry rhyme. It seems to me that this weekly hour may "grow to be a very pleasant one both to you and me, bhat we may possibly begin to count the days until it comes round, that you will be wondering what [ shall have to say next, and in my turn shall svonder what you will think of my next budget. rhere is one thing to be borne in mind, that a josy chat cannot be all on one side therefore I nvite as many of you as like to do so to have a mice in the matter. If you give me your opinion >f the things I tell you, I shall know what pleases rou most, and, sometimes, but I do not promise ilways, your opinions shall guide me in my choice )f subjects. We never can tell what a pudding is ike till we taste it; so I will make no more promises now, but trust you will find our pudding is nice as I shall endeavour to make it. I suppose you have all of you tasted plum- widding, and remember quite clearly what it is like. Perhaps you can give a good guess, too, as to what it is made of. 1 believe some little Sly- boots amongst you has been into the kitchen and actually seen what cook puts into the pudding. I fancy I see her with one finger thrust into her nouth, and oh such a knowing look in her eyes. Sow tell me Sly-boots, how cook makes a plum- judding. "Lots of plums," says Sly-boots sagerly, and sugar, and lemon-peel, and suet, md some flour, that's all I know." Sly-boots puts the plums and sugar first as the most Ïm- )ortant ingredients, but it would be a very funny ort of pudding if it were made of all plums and ugar and no tlour. Now although the flour is me of the most important things, when the pud- ling is properly mixed and boiled, it tastes almost is sweet as though it were all made of sugar. This s just what I want our pudding to do. I shall put many other things into it besides sugar and plums, but I mean to do it so carefully that they rill not in the least spoil its sweetness. What a deliciously hot day this has been The irst day of the holidays, and how tired you all ire with scampering about gardens and fields, etting off the superfluous steam that has been compressed for so long When I was a little girl ive used to earn pocket-money in the holidays by picking daisy-heads from the lawn at a half-penny 1 hundred. This was something like the tribute )f wolves' heads that royal Edgar instituted. Do f-OU remember when, and upon what people, this ;ax was laid ? It served two purposes, it ridded the kingdom of a scourge, and enriched those by whom it was paid. So with our daisy work. But now-a-days the lawn-mowers take all the heads off the lawn daisies so cleverly that you do not get the chance of picking them. Suppose we pluck one out of the many that are growing all about us, and examine it closely. A common thing to make a talk about, but common things tell us most about Him who made us and them. At this hour all the snow-white petals (which I dare say you call leaves) are carefully folded inwards over the golden tufts of florets that form the centre. Did you ever look closely at a daisy, and notice how wonderfully it is made? If you never have done so, I should advise you to do so now while I am talking to you. It is a curious thing how this little flower shuts up all its pretty pink-tipped leaves when night comes and not only at night, but before a storm also. How does it know when a storm is coming? Well, that I cannot tell you that is a little bit of the great wisdom we cannot fully understand here. The wisest man that ever lived could not tell you. You may see that it is true for yourselves if you like. I have seen a meadow glimmering white with thousands of daises in the mid-day sunshine, and, a little while after, clouds sweep up over the sun, the storm winds rise, and then when I looked again I could not have told that there was a single daisy in the meadow all the petals were closely folded down over the golden eyes to protect them. There was an old poet once, called Geoffrey Chaucer, who loved the daisies so dearly that he used to get up in the grey morning light to see ;hem gradually unfold their white leaves'; and at vening he would kneel beside them on the grass ;0 watch them cover up their golden eyes. Don't f-OU think it a beautiful picture ? I must confess ;hat I do. The wise old man, who had read books .ipon books, and written lots of grand poetry, on lis knees beside a little daisy, learning from that ;0 lift his heart to the Maker of flowers and men, le called it the dais-eve, or the eye of da7, and ¡ tang about it so sweetly that the fclsy is "called Chaucer's flower. Many poets have had chortling thoughts about t iaisies, and somew^ 1: have read this lmty I Ittle legend. A tuing is said to be legendary when it is <_i'' y tn;e in fancy, not in fact; true in Tat not absolutely so in incident. LEGEND OF THE DAISY. Once upon a time in the long, long, long ago, the daisies were all stars shining up above in the blue sky. They were not satisfied to be only stars, they wanted to be something bigger and brighter. I am not sure whether they did not as- pire to be the sun itself, certainly they wanted at least to be the moon. So the same thing happened to the daisies that happens to most people who try to be what God does not want them to be, they tumbled out of the sky altogether, down to the earth, and they took root and grew as flowers. But they never forgot that they had once been stars. All through the long, bright sunny days they stared straight up into the blue heavens with their golden eyes wondering how they could get back again. And when the sky was covered with clouds, or the dark night came, they covered up their starry eyes sadly, for it seemed to them that they could never, never again shine brightly over-head that although they pointed out the way to other people, they could never find it for themselves. Can you pick out what is-true in this story; and what makes it a legend ? For fear that you cannot I will tell you. The truth is this—that we should never try never even wish to be other than God has made us. Of course, the daisies never were stars really, but they look so like them sometimes that some poet fancied they might have been, and this makes it a legend. A writer, who is a poet too, 01 our own day, had also some quaint fancies about daisies and other flowers. He pretends or imagines that he can see fairies in all flowers, and that these Bower fairies are very much like the flowers them- selves in mahy things. He says, The flowers seem a sort of house for them, or outer bodies, which they can put on or off when the please. Just as you could form some idea of the nature of a man from the kind of house he built if he followed his own taste, so you could, without see- ing the fairies, tell what any one of them is like by looking at the flower till you feel that you un- derstand it." And this is how he describes the fairy of the ùaisy-" A little, chubby, round-eyed child, with such innocent trust in his look! Even the most mischevious of the fairies would not tease him, although he did not belong to their sect at all, but was quite a little country bumpkin. He wandered about alone, and looked at every- thing, with his hands in his little pockets, and a white night-cap on the darling. He was not so beautiful as many wild flowers I saw afterwards, but so dear and loving were his looks and little confident ways. In France the daisy is called Marguerite, and a girl professes to tell whether or no her sweetheart loves her by pulling of the leaves one by one, say- ing as she plucks them. "Il m'ainie un pen, pat- Ù)11(!mel/t, pas dv tant." In England we should say, He loves me a little passionately not at ail." In Germany they have a longer string of questions, and in Switzerland it is different still. This is a pretty pastime, and one with which you may all amuse yourselves as you sit to rest under the shade of the trees in the meadows some hot summer's day. You need not only try whether some little friend or schoolmate loves you, but you can say, Shall I be rich when I am a man?" and then pluck the leaves to-" Yes—No—Yes— No," &c. You may ask and answer all sorts of funny questions in this way. Only be sure to remember that this is a game, and do not trust to answers that you get by chance. I could tell you many more interesting things about the daisy, hut perhaps I have said enongh for the present, as I am anxious to explain to you what acrostics are, and set you one to guess before I say goodbye till next week. An acrostic is a kind of puzzle that has been very popular amongst both old and young people of late years almost every magazine that is lJUbli8hed now contains some. They may be mad very simple, or immensely difficult, for very clever people some- time employ themselves in making and guessing them. Suppose I want to make an aci e.>tic upon the OaÙJU. I set down the^RFE LETTERS thai;, spe-ll ( it underneath each other in a. line, then find five words that begin with these several letters, thus 1. D iamond. 2. A-ppie. 3. I-nk. 4-. S-aturd!J.,v. 5. Y'-ew, These hv. words are tie, Bllt "hell I want to pu>e you, I describe those Unkis without mentioning the words. I say 1. A precious stone. 2. A fruit. 3. Used to write with. 4. One of the days of the week. 5. A tree. My primals (first letters) give a flower. To guess the acrostic you must first find out the lights, then take the first letters of these lights to get the answer. Now try and guess the fol- lowing, and I will give you the answer next week. (Lights) 1. A song-bird. 2. Part of your body. 3. What the bells do. 4. A domestic pet. Primal- nnne an English song-bird. AUNT MAGGIE.

Y GOLOFN GYMREIG .

AT EIN GOHEBWYR.

YR ANGEL.

YR AGERDD. ^

-----THE NEW SEAHAM COLLIERY…

THE TIN PLATE TRADE.

THE CONVERSION OF CYFARTHFA…