Three draggled little creatures crawled out.
Crash! Splash! Miss Crocodile, now cooled and quieted, came out on the far side, drawing the overturned barrow behind her, and then three little round heads appeared in a row above the water, all driving for the shore, and a moment later three draggled little creatures crawled out amid the laughter of the others.
Baby Jane dried them for fear they should catchcold, but, except that she rubbed them till they squeaked, she forebore from adding to their punishment.
After that, they set the barrow straight and proceeded quietly, pausing every now and again for Sammy to explain a lecture on hop-scotch by examples. Baby Jane herself had never played the game, and thought it fun, for a change, to be a pupil. They soon grew so excited that they had to stop and play a little hop-scotch tournament.
Coolness is half the battle in games, and again Mary Carmichael proved her prowess, and was proclaimed champion hop-schotcher of the Southern Sahara. Perhaps Sammy himself could have won easily, but Baby Jane made him a little sign, and, like the young sportsman that he was, he did not spoil the game, but allowed himself to be beaten.
'Butyouknow I could have won, Miss?' he asked anxiously of Baby Jane when it was over.
'Of course I do,' said she; 'you were very unselfish'; which quite satisfied Sammy.
This caused a good deal of delay, and they made up for it by hurrying at a great rate afterwards. Nevertheless they contrived even then to amusethemselves as they went, for the ingenious Sammy had thought of leap-frog.
It was a picturesque sight.
It was a picturesque sight. Like a river of living waves they flowed across the desert—occasionally a wave broke, but generally they pursued the even tenor of their way. Poor Baby Jane felt that it would be unladylike to play, so had to keep company with Edouardo, who had a mind above leap-frog, with the barrow.
'If only I had my gymnasium things with me!' she sighed.
By this time it was growing dusk, and they could not clearly see their way. It must have been partly for this reason, and partly because they were carried away by the excitement of the game, that—horrible to relate!—a gully suddenly yawned before them, and, before the leading leapers could give warning, the living river was changed into a living cascade, which poured over the brink and down with a rush and rattle to the bottom. Luckily, there was a thick bed of ferns and moss to receive them; but as it was, the lowest layer of creatures had all the breath bumped out of them by the shower of heavy bodies that dropped plump upon them.
You may know how it rains cats and dogs, but you can hardly imagine it raining the whole 'Zoo.'
Edouardo, who was drawing the barrow, pulled up on the very brink of the precipice; but with such a jerk that, alas for Baby Jane, she performed a wilder somersault than she had dreamt of, even in a nightmare, and landed on the top of the pile.
It took some time to unbuild the pyramid, because the lowest layer heaved so strongly that it upset the upper layer as they tried to rise.
But, after a while, they were all upon their feetagain, bruised, panting, possibly a little flatter and wider than before, but otherwise unhurt.
Still the eagle rose.
Still the eagle rose.
Then they began to look about for a way out of the gully. It was very deep and narrow, but not very long, and they had soon explored it thoroughly, and made a terrible discovery—there was no way out but up the smooth, upright sides. Up above they saw Edouardo's head cut out in black against the darkening sky, as he peered helplessly over the edge.
Mary Carmichael set up a shrill wail, but the others all looked very solemn and stood in a circle round Baby Jane gazing at her, as she stood with her hands over her face trying to make her little brains work more quietly and calmly. Now out of all the hours of her life she most needed all her little stock of memory and knowledge. What would a grown-up person do in such a plight? But no thoughts would come, and her chin sank lower on her breast.
'Only magic can save us,' said the Lion at last. 'Does any one know of a spell?'
The party all racked their brains, but nothing came of it.
Suddenly Baby Jane uncovered her face.
'Yes, I know of arealspell,' she said smiling, and then with her face turned frankly up to the narrow sky she uttered a few words, which the creatures could not understand, and which puzzled Sammy. 'Now we have only got to wait,' said she.
Soon afterwards a most wonderful thing happened. Overhead suddenly there came the sound of rushing wings, and a gigantic eagle, who had seen the disaster from afar, swooped into the ravine, and, clutching the Bear, was rising with him, when the Lion made a grab at the Bear's feet, andhe too was borne upwards. Then Mary Carmichael clasped her forelegs round the Lion, and she ascended also. One after another they seized the last pair of legs, and rose until the whole band was dangling from the Bear's legs. Still the eagle rose, now very like a kite with a long tail, and would have soared with them all into the air had not Edouardo on the top of the precipice seized the last pair of legs as they swayed towards him. That was the last straw, and the eagle let fall the string of creatures with a flop upon the open desert—they were saved!
A string of 'sandwich-men.'
CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT CIRCUS
On the morning after the wonderful escape from the ravine, the whole company were, for a while, rather quiet and subdued.
Nothing was to be seen of Baby Jane but the top of her golden head. Her boys and beasts were huddled close round, trying to help her with sleepy suggestions, mostly silly, for raising an army to convert the Bad Band of the Black Mountains.
But as they squatted there on the soft sandin the drowsy warmth of the sun, the councillors began to grow sleepier and their counsels sillier, till suddenly—
'What ho!' said Sammy, and they all woke up. 'Let us have a "greatest show on earth," with a circus and gymnastics, and a play-act to follow. That will catch 'em all alive like a fly-paper, and Miss Jane can enlist the lot! But first we must crawl along in a string in a gutter, if we can find one, rigged out with boards with fine words on them:
'BABY JANE'S GIGANTIC JUBILEE CIRCUSBunny the FunnyAnd Crocky the FairMounted on Mary the Musical Mare.'
'No, I won't!' interrupted Mary Carmichael angrily; 'I don't mind being a tight-rope dancer, but Iwon'tbe a spotted horse!'
Sammy went on calmly:
'Comical CapersAnd Marvellous Feats,Two shilling, shilling, and sixpenny seats.'
'Splendid!' said Baby Jane. 'All except thelast words, which are wrong. The seats are allnothingseats.'
Sammy looked crestfallen—he had thought of the circus an hour before, but had spent all that time in inventing those beautiful lines.
A little later a string of 'sandwich-men' might have been seen walking in step slowly and solemnly across the desert, each bearing before him a beautiful poster (drawn by himself, with a bit of burnt wood on white stuff stretched across four sticks).
'Don't let us tell any one we are sandwich-men,' whispered Mary Carmichael nervously; 'they might think we meant it and take a plateful of us!'
At the end of the procession came Edouardo and the barrow as a caravan.
'It's a pity,' thought Baby Jane with a sigh, 'the barrow has no looking-glasses and gold things and a Britannia on the top and a band inside; but they won't know what a real circus is like, so perhaps we can amuse them.'
It is little wonder that a procession, so rarely seen in those parts, should attract the creatures who saw it from afar, and, as each one ran round the corner and beckoned and shouted to his friends tocome along quick, the solemn line of sandwich-men was soon escorted by an expectant rabble. They all seemed of the right sort—beasts really bad at heart despised harmless fun like this.
Greater still was the curiosity aroused when Baby Jane and her troupe came to a stop in a shallow round hollow with sloping banks like the rising tiers of seats in a real circus. Round the bottom of this hollow Sammy drew a line in the sand, and the following crowd were marshalled into their seats outside it.
Then the circus began. The Bear had just the proper fat figure and gruff voice for a ring-master, and he cracked the whip (ordinarily used to encourage Edouardo) in the most correct way. The Rabbit made an excellently idiotic clown.
The first item was a tight-rope dance by Mary Carmichael. Shewoulddo it in spite of every one's advice that she was being too ambitious. Dressed in a silly little muslin skirt and carrying the umbrella coquettishly over her shoulder, she skipped up to the rope that had been stretched between two posts, and, with the help of the Bear, clambered on to it. For a moment all went well. With a simpering smile she went trip-tripping along therope; but then she gave a frightful stagger, swung out her legs in all directions, twisted her back cruelly in a wild effort to recover herself, and fell with a clatter to the ground, smashing the umbrella beneath her.
The whole audience roared with delight, thinking it part of the fun, but there were tears in Mary's eyes as she limped out of the ring.
'I am afraid I have spoiled the whole show with my silliness,' she said in a choking voice. 'I had better be a common spotted horse now.'
As it was Miss Crocodile's turn to appear as the Queen of the Ring, they took Mary at her word, though she had not meant it, and, having taken away her skirt and put it on Miss Crocodile, they spotted her like a leopard and she had to canter round the ring, watering the sand with bitter tears, while Miss Crocodile, looking very winsome with her little legs crossed, sat sideways upon her and smiled at the audience.
Miss Crocodile was at first quite a brilliant success. Twice she leapt nimbly through the hoop of bent bamboo held aloft by the Bear, but by the third round Mary's sadness had turned to spite.
As before, Miss Crocodile rose into the air andshot through the hoop, but to her dismay she found no horse on the other side for her to come down upon, and she alighted on her chin, balanced for a moment with her tail pointing to the sky, and then fell flat on her back. Mary Carmichael had stopped short under the hoop!
Mary Carmichael had stopped short under the hoop.
At this moment the Rabbit came racing into the ring mounted on a curious four-legged animal which looked strangely like the Piccaninny and Patsey joined together and covered with a rug.
'A race!' squeaked the Rabbit. 'My pony Joey against old Spots-and-corners!'
The spotted Horse appealed to the Ring-master to stop the Rabbit's rudeness, but all the same began to gallop furiously to show that she could do at least one thing well. But the Rabbit, being nearer the middle of the ring, had a much shorter course, and would have won easily if only Patsey, who was the hind legs, could have run as fast as the Piccaninny. As it was, the strange pony grew longer and longer, until the Rabbit, who had a foot on each, was nearly pulled in half. Suddenly the Pony broke in the middle, and both halves and the Rabbit, all mixed up in the ring, joined in a fearful battle on the ground.
'The silly little cuckoos!' squeaked the Rabbit breathlessly, as he arose from the tangled heap. 'I warned them about that.'
After that the three children were led in with ropes round their necks and let loose within a little fence, which represented a cage. Then 'Leo, the heroic Baby Tamer,' trembling visibly, entered, and holding out a stick for that ferocious creature Baby Jane to jump over, tried to subdue her by the power of the eye. But she seemed to consider hismagical gaze merely rude, and, looking as like Miss McColl in a temper as she could, she crept towards him. She must have looked very like, for, with a screech of real fright, the Lion fell flat on his back. Before the wretched creature had time to rise the three savage brutes were upon him.
It was a fearful scene and caused a panic in the audience. Mother-bears clutched their baby-bears, young lady crocodiles fainted, and young lions stood up bravely—and shouted for the police. They were only reassured when the children and the Lion came out of the cage and publicly shook hands to show there was no ill-feeling.
'Oh, that was fun!' cried Baby Jane, pushing aside the golden locks that, now unbound, hung like curtains against her flushed cheeks.
'Oh, was it?' said the Lion, ruefully rubbing himself, but smiling affectionately at her.
When the circus was over there was an interval for dinner, and such was the good-nature called forth by that enjoyable show that as many of the audience got up from dinner as had sat down.
They followed the example of Baby Jane's family and dined on the delicious foods that grew in the groves and thickets. An ill-mannered cubmay have inquired 'Who's for pudding?' but he was instantly cuffed and made to ask 'What'sfor pudding?'
'It is so economical too!' whispered the matrons to one another. 'Of course, one must have a missionary at Michaelmas and so forth, but at other times I shall try to make my family keep to it.'
It was a much larger audience that returned to the arena after the meal, for youngsters had been despatched, grumbling and whimpering, to bring in distant relatives, and the far-reaching whiffs of the dinner itself had brought in other beasts full-pelt.
And now began the Great Gymnastic Display. Baby Jane had been only a beginner in the gymnasium of her school, and Sammy's knowledge was of the kind gained on park-railings and lamp-posts, but the spectators knew nothing at all and thought it very fine.
First the Lion and Patsey, under Sammy's direction, had a trial of skill on the Parallel Bars. Sure, and it was a sweet sight to see Patsey with his little shillelagh brandished in one foot and his hat in the other, dancing a jig wrong side up. On the other hand, the Lion tried to be stately. Now,it is nearly always a mistake to try to be stately while standing on your head, and so the Lion found, for in straightening himself out a little too far he slowly toppled backwards and fell flop on top of Patsey, who, not having eyes in the part of him then uppermost, could not see what was coming.
They rescued Patsey and found him crushed in body but not in spirit; on the contrary, he struggled to go and fight a duel with the Lion.
Next, fixing up a post in the middle of the arena, they fastened ropes to the top of it, and then, holding the other end of these ropes, they swung round and round at a giddy pace, touching the ground lightly with their toes. Of course this sport, especially with the slender pole that they had, was only for the graceful little ones, and Baby Jane, the Piccaninny, and the Rabbit were growing breathless with the delightful sweep and swing of it, when that Mary Carmichael, who was as vain as she was sentimental, and thought herself an airy young thing, came tripping across the ring, and, hooking her great hoofs in the loop at the end of a rope, struck the ground with her hind legs as if she were starting at omnibus. Twice she wentslinging round after the others and then—crack!—the pole gave way, and the four performers were slung like stones amongst the crowd. The other three landed safely and softly on broad backs, but heavy, bony Mary descended in the lap of a cross old spinster bear, who was gossiping with two cronies.
Mary descended in the lap of a cross old spinster bear.
'Now, can't you look where you are going?' snapped Miss Bear, bundling Mary off her lap on to the ground.
'Oh, I'm sure I beg your pardon!' said Mary hotly; and then, losing her temper—'You don't imagine I want to join in the conversation of persons who certainly aren't ladies, and don't look it!'
And then she flounced away, while they made scathing remarks to one another about her at the top of their voices.
It can easily be understood that she was much too upset to play the part of a vaulting-horse as it should be played, but she had to do it, trembling all over with spite, and occasionally, to the great inconvenience of the gymnasts, jerking half round to glare at the three spinsters, who were laughing loudly at her undignified position.
Sammy led the line that raced nimbly up to the vaulting-horse, placed his hands upon her back and turned a neat somersault over her. The others all got over in some way or other, and all went well until Miss Crocodile lost her head.
Instead of running round the horse and vaulting from the same side as before, she turned straight back, bounded lightly into the air, and—met the Bear as he turned a somersault in the opposite direction! There was a terrible collision, and, worse and worse, the other vaulters could not stopthemselves and joined in the crash. It was an awful sight—a whirling mass of heads, legs, bodies, and tails high in the air!
Mary Carmichael thought that a blizzard and a thunderstorm had met overhead, and made for shelter. It was well for her that she did so, for the next two seconds it rained beasts and babies on the spot where she had stood.
This succession of disasters, though painful to the performers, called forth thunders of applause from the spectators—indeed, they would not stop clapping, and it turned out they wanted the tumbles all over again.
But Baby Jane and her troupe sadly needed the rest they enjoyed at tea-time, during which they made plans for the play that was to end the day's pleasure.
'It is growing dark,' said Baby Jane; 'we shall have to have something that happens at night. I know! I've read some stories from Shakespeare.Romeo and JulietandHamletboth have nice night-scenes; they would mix beautifully into one play. Oh yes, this is it! Prince Hamlet, who is unkind to Ophelia because he is really in love with Juliet, has a sort of tame ghost, and, when he finds Romeosaying loving things to the window of Juliet's room, he sets his tame ghost on to him. Then, of course, Romeo runs away chased by the ghost, and Juliet, who has heard the loving things, comes out and sees Hamlet and thinks it was he who said them, so she tells him to climb up and kiss her, and they are married and live happily ever afterwards.'
'But what happens to that other poor lady, Ophelia?' asked the chivalrous Lion.
'Oh, she doesn't appear,' said Baby Jane, 'so it doesn't matter; but I expect she marries Romeo or the ghost andtheylive happily ever afterwards too.'
The play went off splendidly. The crowd was now immense, and there was no need this time to have tortoises laid on their backs for spectators. A number of tortoises, who probably had been used for the tableaux, did come and turned over on their backs of their own accord, but they were promptly turned right-side up and chased out of the place.
The audience took everything very seriously; indeed, it was lucky no actor had to play the part of a villain, for they would certainly have paid him the compliment of eating him.
How they roared with excitement! 'Go it, ghost! Go it, Romeo!' as the ghost scuttled round and round after Romeo until he laid his paw on a tree and cried 'Touch wood!' when the spectre uttered a shuddering shriek and faded away into the night.
'And a capital match for her,' said the matrons, when Hamlet married Juliet. 'Fancy a prince so grand that he keeps a ghost as you or I might keep a canary!'
All were pleased at this happy ending, and just in the mood to hear Baby Jane's speech.
She began as she had heard a recited speech begin at school: 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I hope you've enjoyed yourselves. I want you to come and be my beasts. You only want to be shown how to be nice and happy, but there are some poor beasts who can't be nice of their own accord. Of course, it's much best to make things so good for the good ones that everybody wants to become good; but if that won't do, then youhaveto make things so bad for the bad ones that nobody wants to stay bad. Now I've got to make things awfully bad for the poor Black Mountain Band, so that they shall be happy afterwards. Will you helpme? I want a regiment of Lions (loud cheers from the Lions present), and a regiment of Bears (prolonged applause from the Bears), and a regiment of Rabbits (enthusiastic squeaks). Here are my Captains!' and she held out her hand towards her own body-guard.
At this point the vast audience rose as one beast and waved their paws and shouted:
'We will die for our Queen, Baby Jane!'
CHAPTER VII
BABY JANE'S ARMY
Baby Jane's first thought when she opened her eyes in the early morning was of her army, and she scrambled to her feet and stared before her.
It was a splendid sight. The great line, all shining in the new-risen sun, stretched away from her, regiment after regiment, until it was lost far away in the morning mist, and before each regiment stood its Colonel, casting a long blue shadow behind him.
Cheerful shoutings and the fluttering of many flags in the cool air helped to make Baby Jane feel very elated, and she clapped her hands and laughed, and took several dancing steps. Sammy must have been up very early to marshal the army.
At this moment that youth came galloping upmounted on Edouardo, waving his cap, and, while yet some way off, shouted breathlessly to her:
'Something like an army, isn't it?'
'Oh, Sammy, you are a general!' said Baby Jane. 'I wish I could help more. Perhaps I could disguise myself and go out as a spy while you are teaching the army. But, anyhow, let's all have breakfast, and we will talk as we eat it. Do you know how to drill them?'
'Oh, easy as eating this muffin,'[1]said Sammy, who was always quite sure about everything. 'Suppose they are all in a line, doing something; well, you just shout at them, "Ow-row-row, rahee, urra-ub!" and they suddenly do something else.'
'Why not shout in English?' asked Baby Jane.
'What, and let the enemy know what you are going to do next?' said Sammy scornfully. 'Not much!'
'But do the soldiers themselves know what you mean?' the puzzled Baby Jane persisted.
Sammy winked.
'Not a bit of it!' said he. 'When the Colonel shouts, they have got to dosomethingall together,it doesn't matter what, and the Colonel has to look as if it was just what he meant.'
'But what is the good of it anyhow?' asked she.
'Well,' said he, 'if they surprise their own Colonel, they're bound to surprise the enemy much more!'
Breakfast being ended, the manœuvres commenced. Baby Jane did not take part herself, but, sitting beneath a palm upon a little knoll, with the deepest interest she watched her regiments wheel and turn and form into columns and squares before her.
'If it doesn't frighten that Black Mountain Band,' thought she, 'to see my army doing these odd things on the sand, theymustbe brave!' But here her reflections were painfully interrupted.
The second regiment on the right, a little brown regiment, that had been performing brilliantly, though rather noisily, and had just at that moment formed an elegant hollow square, suddenly broke up, and, with deafening yells, piled itself in a heap, like a swarm of bees, upon its Colonel.
Then Mary Carmichael, with a terrified face, came galloping up to Baby Jane, and pulling up on her haunches, panted out the words:
'The Flanagans have mutinied!'
Baby Jane sprang upon her back, and galloped her across the desert straight at the shrieking pile of monkeys. At her approach they fell apart, and leaving their Colonel sitting crushed and forlorn, they rushed at her with a volley of explanations.
'Ah, the spalpeen! He said his poor ould father was a standing disgrace to the regiment, and, as he couldn't look decent on his feet, he'd make him do his drills on his head. And as for his mother, poor ould soul, he's made her a drummer-boy!'
Clearly Patsey had been misusing his military authority to get even with his parents for past thrashings, and it took some time before Baby Jane, holding the bruised Colonel in her arms, could make peace between him and his rebellious regiment. She had to be very severe with them.
'You're not a bit of good as infantry,' she said. 'Just fancy a regiment that ought to be stretched out in a thin red—I mean brown—line, piled in a heap on top of the Colonel! No, you are not infantry any more—you're artillery, and will have to stand in rows and throw cocoa-nuts for cannon-balls.'
At this moment Sammy came up, and he was charmed with the idea.
'What ho!' he cried. 'Splendid! Talk of batteries of four-inch field-guns! Just wait till those Black Mountaineers see our batteries of four-inch field-monkeys!'
It was the Rabbit's regiment of scouts that was being drilled next to the Flanagans, but he allowed them all to 'stand at ease' to watch the disgrace of his friend Patsey, and professed to think their new title exceedingly funny.
'Oh, who'd be a four-inch field-monkey?' he squeaked, and he slapped his knees and laughed till the tears ran down his whiskers.
'Well,' said Baby Jane, turning sharply upon him, 'you seem very pleased with yourself, but what canyourregiment do?'
The Rabbit dried his tears with his paw. 'Do?' he said shrilly. 'Why, look at this!'
Truly it was magnificent. Squatting still as statues, at the word of command five hundred bunnies cocked their thousand ears in unison. 'Up—down—right—left!'
'And that's nothing,' said the Rabbit calmly; 'they can do the same with their tails!'
'Wonderful!' said Baby Jane. 'And now, as Sammy says that Miss Crocodile's regiment, andthe Lion's, and the Bear's have been doing wonderful things, every one has done a good morning's work——'
'Except the four-inch field-monkeys,' interrupted the Rabbit spitefully.
'And drill is over for the day,' went on Baby Jane. 'This afternoon my army shall sit down and keep cool and see a military tournament.'
As to the beginning of this tournament there was a good deal of puzzling and trouble, for the army sent a solemn deputation, headed by Miss Crocodile and Mary Carmichael, to Baby Jane during dinner to pray that proceedings might open with a war-dance.
Now Baby Jane had not the least idea how a war-dance went, and, after a long consultation with Sammy, she had to tell the deputation so.
'Do you know how it goes yourselves?' she asked.
Miss Crocodile said the niggers always did it before they went out collecting missionaries. You jumped up and down and waved sticks and shouted. Here Miss Crocodile made a few shy steps to illustrate her meaning.
'Of course,' said Baby Jane, upon whom a lighthad dawned. 'An Irish jig! The very thing! I danced it in a play once, and I will show you. Come along. What fun!'
It required but little practice, and, with two pretty hoods for the ladies and a couple of sprigs of blackthorn for the gentlemen, they were presently equipped and ready to dance before the army, which was now spread out in a huge semicircle facing the open desert and the distant Black Mountains. And they might have stepped straight from the fair at Coleraine, for the Lion looked the broth of a boy, and even the Bear threw off his Scottish manner and was for the time a roaring blade; while as for Mary and Miss Crocodile, no saucier colleens ever peeped from beneath a hood.
Baby Jane, flushed and smiling, holding a bit or frock in each hand, led them into the middle.
'Now,' she whispered over her shoulder, 'one—two—three—whistle!'
Then to the romping air of 'St. Patrick's Day in the Morning' five light figures tripped it gaily up and down, every footfall pat to a note. Now, with a bang and a yell, dancing defiance at one another, the boys met in the middle, each with his lady under his lee. Then, shooting roguish glancesright and left, Miss Crocodile and Mary, hand-in-hand, would trip between the warlike ones and take the floor. And the army marked time with whoops that must have echoed in the distant mountains.
A little mocking measure.
It was glorious—worth a month of life—or at any rate it would have been if the Rabbit and Patsey had not been observed dancing a little mocking measure of their own device about twenty yards from the real dancers.
Now it is a difficult thing to look thoroughly arch and roguish while some one is imitating you, and though Mary and Miss Crocodile struggled fiercely to keep up their saucy smile, they couldnot help casting an occasional glance of bitterness and rage at the Rabbit and Patsey, who were mincing and curvetting with an artless coquetry twice as winning as their own.
They could barely restrain themselves until the dance had ended in a roar of applause, and then, cutting short their graceful curtsey of acknowledgment in the middle, they sprang after the little beasts, and, with hoods flying out behind, chivied them round and round until they took refuge in the skirts of Baby Jane, who had hardly noticed the mocking dance, and thought that the chivying was merely an innocent romp.
But Miss Crocodile was not to be put off, and assuming a pleasant smile, she went up to Baby Jane and suggested a playful combat with wooden broadswords between herself and Patsey. It seemed rather a good idea, and as Patsey raised no objection, it was arranged to take place at once.
Patsey appeared first in the arena, and there he sat on his sword, looking very small and innocent, like a little brown bumble-bee roosting on a twig. Miss Crocodile soon followed, with a nasty smile on her lips. (A three-inch mouth can display a great deal of nastiness; consider, then, the possibilities ofa three-foot mouth!) She wasted no time, and rushing up, swung her sword to knock the bumble-bee off its twig, but as the sword reached Patsey, he fluttered a yard into the air, and, before Miss Crocodile could recover herself, his weapon had whistled twice round his head and landed—thwack!—upon her tenderest row of teeth. It was cruelly painful, and Miss Crocodile rolled on the ground and wept aloud, while Patsey skipped chuckling round her, until Baby Jane caught him and cuffed him severely. If he could not play without being rough, she said, he should not play at all. She was very fond of little Patsey, but felt that she must be a stern mother to him.
He fluttered a yard in the air.
Now the Lion had also observed Patsey and the Rabbit's little mocking dance, so when the Piccaninny, armed with a lance, was mounted on his back to engage the Rabbit, who had a sword and rode pick-a-back on Patsey, he thought it a good opportunity of serving out a little stern justice on that couple.
It was arranged that the Piccaninny and the Rabbit were to charge together from a distance and see which could unhorse the other. The Lion's idea was to take no notice of the sword-and-lance business, but simply to rush at the offending couple, knock them head-over-heels and generally maul them. But the Rabbit also had his notions, and contrived that the course should pass close to a fox-hole, of which there were several around.
'Nothing like arranging your port in case of a storm,' he remarked to Patsey.
Well, the course was cleared and the signal given—'Charge!' With a roar and a rush the Lion came thundering down the line, and, to the admiration of the whole army, the Rabbit went bravely out to meet him. But he was watching the Lion's face keenly, and at the last moment he caught a gleam in his eye. At that instant theywere passing the fox-hole, and the Lion was but a yard away.
The Lion came thundering down the line.
'Down, Monkey!' shrieked the Rabbit, and down the hole they shot together feet foremost. The Lion was astounded at the mysterious disappearance of the couple, and in his struggles to pull up he caught his foot in the Piccaninny's lance, shot that child twenty yards away, and himself came bump on his chin. He got up slowly, trying to retain his dignity, and looked haughtily round.
Two little smiling faces were regarding himfrom over the edge of the hole. They nodded pleasantly to him.
'How's your Auntie Lou?' asked the Rabbit, as if to break the ice.
Two little smiling faces were regarding him.
The Lion had no Auntie Lou, and he stared stonily in front of him without reply. There was a long pause, and then the Rabbit inquired:
'Say, Mister, are you going to be rough if we come up?'
'Yes,' said the Lion, promptly and gravely.
'How many kicks do you reckon to give us?'
'Ten each,' said the Lion.
'Could you make it seven?'
'No.'
'Eight might suit you?'
'No.'
'How about nine?'
'No!' roared the Lion in a temper.
'Well, now, don't get angry,' said the Rabbit; 'we are only asking for information. We aren't coming up this way at all.' And with that they retired below.
Baby Jane had nothing to say in this affair, for the reason that she was consulting Sammy and the Bear on the very important project of which she had spoken to Sammy earlier in the day.
'You remember how King Alfred went among the Danes disguised as a harper,' she said.
Nobody had the faintest recollection of the incident, but they took her word for it, and she went on:
'Well, I mean to disguise myself and go with you, Bear, to the Black Mountains to try and coax away the less bad beasts that may be there, and to find out all the enemy's plans. I shouldn't beafraid with you, Bear, and Sammy would be left in charge of the army until I came back.'
'H'm, it might be done,' said the Bear, 'and I know of a little black bearskin not far away that would just cover you, clothes and all.' He did not mention that at the time there was a little black bear still in the skin.
'Well, that's settled; and,' said Baby Jane, 'Mary shall come with us and be our horse.'
It was pitiful to see how Mary's jaw fell on hearing this.
'But—but—but,' she said in a choking voice, 'I want to be a Major-General—and—and—I've got the cocked hat all ready—and—and—and—I've been learning lots of things. Just look here! This is one thing I've learnt.'
And the poor creature went through the motions of preparing to receive cavalry very creditably. But Baby Jane was stern, and in a little while Mary Carmichael, carrying the adventurous couple, was slouching off.
Here the cunning old Bear whispered loudly to Baby Jane, 'Perhaps, after all, perhaps you had better make her a Major-General. She is no good as a horse—can't trot a little bit.'
Mary began to hum loudly to pretend she hadn't heard, but her ears grew very red, and she began stealthily to quicken her pace until she was slinging out her hoofs in a thundering fourteen-miles-an-hour trot—straight for the enemy's country, the Black Mountains.
Straight for the enemy's country.
CHAPTER VIII
IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP
When they had gone a few miles, the Bear told Mary Carmichael to stop (which she was very glad to do, being breathless and having a bad stitch in her side), and climbing down he walked off gaily and rapidly towards a neighbouring wood.
In a wonderfully short time he came back, carrying over his shoulder a little glossy black bearskin.
Baby Jane danced round him with delight. In a moment she had packed herself and her petticoats into the skin, but she was almost too excited to stand still while the Bear skilfully fastened up the opening—she felt so delightfully safe and cosy, peeping forth at the outer world through the little eye-holes.
'But how did you get it?' she asked. It was always an unwise question to ask the Bear. However, he did not seem to hear her, but began talking as if to himself in an absent-minded way.
Baby Jane danced round him with delight.
'What to do with our boys! Yes, that's a puzzle. Now, there was my nephew Billy. Ah! a bad sort was Billy; his heart was as black as his hide. No sort of good for anything, and so unkind and rude to his poor old Uncle. And yet it was his dear old Uncle that found some use for him!'
You will probably understand why it was lucky that Baby Jane was prevented from asking any more questions by a strange appearance, which altogether turned her thoughts from the little black bearskin.