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Show Impossible Journey Sttfuj By Shirley Ray TT WAS the fifth morning in a row so Mrs. Laughton was not surprised. sur-prised. She slipped out of bed quietly, qui-etly, reached for a robe, and put it over her shoulders. Before dawn, every morning of that week, her four-year-old daugh-I daugh-I i ter had wakened 3 -Minute H"."!0? fe,ntle but insistent tugs FlCtlOn to tell her about ' ' the dream she'd just had. Had they been nightmares, night-mares, Mrs. Laughton would have been eager to get up to comfort a frightened child, but they were never nev-er nightmares. They were always gay and fanciful dreams that made the little girl's small face glow with wonder and delight. So Mrs. Laughton, as on the other mornings, took Ellen into the kitchen and poured a glass of milk tor each of them. With both small hands wrapped around her glass, the little girl sat on the edge of a too large chair and with shining eyes, eagerly told her dream. T DREAMED I was sleeping, Mommy, and that the North Wind stopped right outside my wiri-dow wiri-dow and called my name. He said, 'Ellen Ellen wake up and come to the window. Then I'll put you on my shoulder and take you for a ride with me.' " Mrs. Laughton took a drink from her glass of milk. This dream was going to be very much like the others. oth-ers. Something or someone once a bluebird, once a fairy she couldn't recall what the others were came to the window and offered to take Ellen on an impossible journey. Mrs. Laughton yawned. She would liked to have put her daughter to bed and ended the tale at once, but the thought of Mr. Laughton and his sure-to-be-bad disposition made her ask patiently, "What did the North Wind look like, dear?" Ellen was enthusiastic. "He was green," she declared importantly. im-portantly. Mrs. Laughton thought to herself, her-self, "She doesn't know one color from another." The child continued. "He had long pointy green .shoes and long green hair and a long green nose." The wide eyes and little blonde head leaned forward and the small voice became confidential. "He was all green except for the buckles on his shoes. They were silver and shaped like stars and they sparkled spar-kled so bright that I had to blink my eyes as we went through the air." Mrs. Laughton yawned again. Ellen El-len didn't notice. "After I climbed onto his shoulder," shoul-der," she said, "we went way up high over all the houses and trees. We woke the leaves and they made shivering noises whenever we passed by. We stirred the dust from the streets so they would be clean for morning. tJUT soon he said that he must take me back home because there were other towns he had to visit before the night was over. So," (she sounded genuinely disappointed) dis-appointed) "we came back to my window. He lifted me down from his shoulder, said goodnight and went away way up in the sky." "That's fine, dear such a fine dream," she said, and added hastily, hast-ily, "Now let's go back to bed." It was morning. Mr. Laughton had left for the ofTice a couple of hours ago, and Ellen was playing in the yard. Mrs. Laughton made Ellen's small bed. She picked up a rag doll and set it in a chair. She put the two miniature bedroom slippers in their place in the closet. She picked up a rumpled nightie and started to hang it away. There was something in the pocketsomething pock-etsomething heavy. Mrs. Laughton Laugh-ton put her hand inside and felt. It was cold and hard. She drew it out slowly and held it in her hand for a long time. It was a silier buckle in the shape of a star. j Released by WNU Features. |