Baby Jane's Mission Part 14

And with that she and her friends, who were bursting with pride at the idea of helping to teach, came skipping down the slope, and began arranging the beasts for a sort of country dance.

'Choose your partners,' cried Baby Jane, 'and don't be shy!'

Of course her little voice was never heard by the more distant creatures; her messages were pa.s.sed from mouth to mouth, and it was odd to hear a gruff buffalo roaring in the distance--

'Choose your partners, and don't be shy!'

At first no one would venture, and it was the Rabbit who gave them a lead. He walked up to the tallest lady giraffe he could find, he did, crooked his arm to lead her out, and--

'May I have the pleasure?' said he, as bold as bra.s.s.

But right away up there she did not hear him, so, growing impatient, he grasped her leg, and up he went hand over hand. Then he proceeded up her neck, and when, after five minutes' climbing, his face was level with hers, he squeaked at the top of his voice--

[Ill.u.s.tration: 'May--I--have--the--pleasure?']

'May--I--have--the--pleasure?'

The giraffe started violently.

'Oh, my gracious!' she said. 'I thought it was a beetle running up me!'

And then, unluckily, the Rabbit's whiskers tickled her nose, and she sneezed him twenty yards away on to the ground.

'That's the worst of these tall girls,' said he. 'They make a man feel so small.' And he picked himself up and went and danced with a merry little marmoset.

The Bear danced with a pleasant but homely zebra, and Mary with an ostrich, with whom she flirted scandalously. Sammy said he was not a dancing man, and, quietly departing, he loaded his barrow with oranges; and later on, sad to relate, drove a roaring trade among the poor heated beasts, taking all their little valuables in exchange for his goods. He was not selfish, simply a born man of business. However, you can imagine he took marvellous good care not to come near Baby Jane.

When the last nervous gnu had led out his bashful bustard the dance began. Whichever way Baby Jane turned she looked down long lines of swaying dancers with light feet leaping all in time--it made her head swim with excitement; and the tune of the whistling rabbits came lilting and trilling across the plain, and filled her heart with glee.

She had been only watching the fun to keep her poor bandaged Lion company, but her feet were twitching to be off. She glanced at him, and found that he was glancing at her.

'Come along!' said he suddenly; and the next instant they were dancing as if for dear life. And, strange to say, though the Lion's bandages all slipped off, his bones remained quite straight. So wonderful was the air of this land and so splendid his const.i.tution that they had mended themselves already!

The puffing of that crowd when it at last came to a stop sounded like a stationful of shunting engines. They were all very hot, and also very thirsty.

'Let's race for the river,' cried Baby Jane.

Then the Lion tossed her on to his back, and half of the others having got on the other half's backs--sometimes two beasts each tried to get on to the other's back at the same time--the whole army started off at a tearing gallop.

Miss Crocodile led for a short distance, for she was wonderfully quick on her legs, and had rather meanly refused to carry any one. After a while, inch by inch, the Lion, who was the fastest creature on that desert, overhauled and pa.s.sed her.

'Anyhow, I've beaten that Rabbit!' she screamed. 'He thinks he's a regular race-horse.'

'And so he is,' said that creature, jumping off her own tail, where he and Patsey had been riding unnoticed. 'Why, just look at this!'

And with that, being fresh as paint, he sailed away from her, and left her gasping all the rude things she could think of after him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: She tripped on to her chin.]

Of course the Lion and Baby Jane came in first, but the Rabbit and Patsey were second. Mary Carmichael would have been third, but she tripped on to her chin and grazed it badly, and was pa.s.sed by a little black panther riding a gnu.

When they had all refreshed themselves, in high delight with the pleasure Baby Jane had given them, they swarmed round the foot of a hillock, where she stood beneath a palm that hung its boughs like a canopy over her, looking up at her and waiting for more fun.

Suddenly the Lion came out of the crowd, and, followed by the other friends, rushed half-way up the slope towards her; then, turning to the great mult.i.tude, he swung aloft a cocoa-nut goblet and roared in a voice that echoed among the mountains--

'A health to her Majesty!'

Surely never before had human child seen the sight that followed! Ten thousand wild animals--fifty 'Zoos' let loose--crowding nearly to the horizon, flung up their paws and roared her name with one tremendous voice.

It was ever so: at the moment of triumph comes the fall, and the royal Queen becomes the no-account nursery child.

Before the last echo of that great shout had died away among the distant cliffs an agitated animal came pushing through the crowd with the tidings that a fat man was coming along from the eastward. With one accord the whole company ran out to have a look at him.

There he was--a stout, stately man, pacing soberly over the desert; and at the sight of him Baby Jane cried in a tone of bitter annoyance--

'Why, it's Markham!'

[Ill.u.s.tration: 'Why, it's Markham!']

Then, after standing for a moment with face bowed down, trying to restrain her tears, she rushed behind the Lion and the Bear, and, crouching between them, burst into loud and decidedly unqueenlike weeping.

'Why do they send for me?' she sobbed, 'just when everything has come right, and I am having such fun and have grown so fond of my beasts?'

Her two big friends were much disturbed by her grief. 'Oh, don't cry, please, don't cry,' they said, and tried to dry her eyes with a corner of her own frock. 'We aren't very hungry, but, if you like, we will try and manage him.'

In the meanwhile Mr. Markham, the butler (for such he was), was equally upset.

'Mercy on us!' he said, 'what mischief will that child come into next?

There she is, now, just going to be eaten up by roaring lions, as sure as I'm alive!'

But he did not seem sure of being alive very long, for he found himself in a square--or as near it as could be got by one naturally formed in a circle--and prepared for his last dinner party.

After a little while, seeing that the terrible beasts did not seem immediately inclined to dine on him, and that Miss Jane was actually hiding among them, his natural self-possession returned to him.

'Miss Jane! Miss Jane!' he called, speaking slowly and with dignity, 'your mamma wishes you to come home at once. She is very vexed with you being out so long--and without your hat, too! And I don't think she would at all like your playing with strange animals.'

'Who's a strange animal?' cried Mary Carmichael sharply.

'Oh, no offence, no offence,' said the butler, making a stiff little bow, 'but my instructions is that the young lady is to come home at once. Your mamma says,' he went on slowly, addressing Baby Jane, 'that she has allowed you to spend your holidays where you please, but you should have been home when lessons began again. They are looking for you everywhere. Peter has gone to Peru, and Miss McColl is in the Western Hebrides. But I said to Mrs. Cook, "When young ladies who is as fond of lions and bears as our Miss Jane goes travelling, those who aren't quite devoid of intellect will know where to find them. Miss Jane is in Africa."'

'I suppose I must go,' said Baby Jane, with dismal little sniffs for commas. 'Oh, my dear beasts, what lovely times I have had with you! I will come back; oh yes, I will come back, or you shall come to me, and we will all live together in a cottage in the country and have great times and astonish all the neighbours. Oh, send me a message by the Swallows--I know they come over the sea from here--if ever you want me badly.'

She patted Miss Crocodile, and kissed the Piccaninny once on his forehead; then she put her arms round the neck of the Lion, and of the Bear, and the Rabbit and Patsey, and kissed them twenty times, and then walked unsteadily away towards Mr. Markham.

He in the meanwhile had been in close conference with Sammy, Mary, and Edouardo, who had all applied for situations in Baby Jane's household, and he had promised to recommend them--Sammy and Edouardo to help the gardener, and Mary as a 'stylish horse to draw a victoria'--as she described herself.