whereupon it begins to shrink until it comes back to its first size. I performed the experiment before the children, and from that day on they teased Johnny whenever he told a lying story, shouting in his face:

— Balloon-fish! Balloon-fish!

And these simple words worked upon Johnny more than all the sermons of the grown-ups.

Johnny took his great step forward at the piano, the day we returned from the summer place to our house in the city. Until that hour we had not known that he was one of the gifted. Scarcely had we entered the house and he caught sight of the piano when he cried out:

— A piano! A piano too! May I play?

And while we were unpacking the bags he sat down at the piano, trying to play a tune he knew. He hunted for the notes, and when he went wrong he began again. He did not come to the table at supper time, so I brought him his food on a tray and said to him:

— Eat whenever you like.

His eyes shone. The clock struck ten and he was still at the tune, and early in the morning he was back at the attempt. My husband sighed, hiding his head under the pillow:

— Do you hear? Is your son a Mozart??

At five o'clock in the afternoon Johnny shouted:

— Mama! Mama! Listen — I've found the tune!

He had truly found the tune, and he began playing it with both hands together. And so we gave him music lessons, and he became the only one among the children who forced me to say:

— For heaven's sake, Johnny,

stop a little; you have worked quite enough.

Thus his artistic gifts gave him confidence in himself, and he stopped lying.

Music, however, had no power to root out his second failing: he was cowardly and craven, not daring even to play ball. So we bought him the equipment for base-ball, and he took it joyfully to school; in the evening he came back weeping and complaining:

— Not one of the boys will play with me. They all say I'm afraid of the ball!

I took him out to the yard of the house to play with him, and I had hardly thrown the ball when he panicked and covered his head with his hands. And then I understood! How often he had been beaten! So that the least motion of the arms made him shrink back in terror.

My husband set about playing with him with patience and forbearance — first with a rubber ball, then with a hard ball. And one day our little daughter was "riding" a wall — as small children will — and her father threw her the ball; she caught it deftly and threw it at Johnny, who was astonished that a little girl could play with such skill. He caught the ball in flight without any fear, and when night fell and he went into his room he shouted in triumph:

— Tonight I'm going to put out the light! Now that I'm no longer afraid of the ball, I shall never be afraid of anything again!

And he feared nothing any more. At school he joined the players' team and became leader of the students' band. By his diligence he won a scholarship for four years at the university, and all the while he earned his living by working in stores or restaurants,

or by playing in the bands of dance halls. At last he obtained a "pilot's" certificate at the aviation center, and today he is in the naval air fleet.

Before he left for his service, I entered the hospital for a dan-gerous operation, after which I needed a quantity of blood. Johnny gave me the quantity required. And when his blood was in my veins he said to me, beaming:

— There, Mama! Now we are mother and son truly and in fact, for one and the same blood runs in our veins!

*

Footnote: The translator, poor and in need of God's mercy, Salma Sayegh, says:

I have rendered into Arabic, for the dear women readers, this tale, which shows the longing of deprived children for love... and here I present it to them without any comment....

The new Chen Yu

CHEN YU

• Keeps its quality a long time

• Dries quickly

• Its colors are magical and alluring

• Its new brush makes it easy to use

For fingertips and for lips