Close thine eyes, my beauty bright,
Dream, dream of the flowing Nile,
Where thy mother first saw light--
(Ah, sweet is thine infant smile!)
Close thy pretty baby mouth,
Close, close thy blinking eye;
Dream of the joyous, sunny South--
Lullaby, lullaby.
--_Hippopotamus Cradle Song._
All the morning there had been an excited running to and fro among the
Keepers of the Menial World. Evidences of a stupendous mystery were
apparent on every hand. It seemed to center in the Hippopotamus House,
the doors of which were locked and barred, as well as those of the Lion
House adjoining it. The Princess, devoured by curiosity, deluged Toots
with questions. While awaiting developments, they were feeding peanuts
to Zuelma, the vain young mother ostrich. For quite a while the little
Limping Boy was unable to get any light on the mystery.
"If the sparrow were only here," said the Princess, "there would be a
lot of gossip about it; wouldn't there, Toots?"
"Yes," answered the boy; "but we won't have to wait long. Listen,
Mahmoud is beginning to rumble through his trunk. Twice old Sultan has
roared under his breath, and a moment ago the tigers were snarling. The
secret will soon be out--"
At that instant, Sultan, patriarch of the lions, delivered himself of
a mighty roar. Even the Princess could tell by the sound of it that it
was not a roar of anger.
"Good!" said Toots, "that is old Sultan's call for rejoicing. Now
listen."
[Illustration]
Mahmoud was first to reply. The old elephant trumpeted a hearty
response, in which the other elephants joined. After that there were
growls from the bears, snarls from the tigers and pumas, and an
extraordinary chattering among the monkeys. Throughout all the Menial
World there was only one note of discord, one failure to respond
heartily to the call for rejoicing. When the other voices had subsided,
up spoke the aged striped hyena in his evil-tempered voice, demanding:
"Wherefore rejoice? What has befallen in the Lion House that gives
cause for rejoicing?"
The roar with which Sultan prefaced his reply was so terrible that the
ill-favored beast cowered back into the farthest corner of his den.
Said Sultan:
"Not for this suspicious, thieving, ill-conditioned creature, but for
all the loyal inhabitants of the Menial World shall the answer be
given. Harken to the voice of Caliph, the Wise."
For a moment there was deep silence. Then spoke Caliph, patriarch of
the hippopotami, in his rumbling roar, resembling that of the cataracts
of the Upper Nile, within the sound of which his youth had been spent:
"Lo, Fatimah, my beloved mate, hath an infant daughter. Mother and
child are doing well; therefore, rejoice."
Whereat there was such general and hearty rejoicing that all the houses
of the Menial People rocked on their foundations. But when the sound
of it had died away, the aged hyena could be heard snarling:
"Pooh! only one? Though my mate brought me four daughters and a son one
morning as I was gnawing the leg bone of a sheep, yet I made no uproar
about it."
"That is because you are a selfish, thieving, carrion-eating old
hypocrite," thundered back Caliph.
[Illustration]
Zuelma, with her bill wide open, as is her custom while listening,
stood with her long neck craned over the head of the little Limping
Boy, in whose hand that of the Princess--somewhat frightened by the
uproar among the animals--was tightly clasped. Suddenly, Pwit-Pwit, the
Sparrow gossip and news-gatherer for all the Menial People, fluttered
down at her feet.
"I have been expecting you for an hour," said the ostrich. "Now,
thank goodness, we shall know the truth, after all this roaring and
trumpeting. How is it, Pwit-Pwit, that so much fuss is made over a
single baby? Were the other eggs eaten by the crocodiles?"
[Illustration]
"As soon as I heard the call for rejoicing," said the sparrow, "I flew
at once to the Hippopotamus House; but the door was shut and no one
came to let me in. But it sticks in my mind, Zuelma, that the young of
the Hippopotamus are not hatched from eggs."
At this, Zuelma, who was a mother herself, laughed scornfully.
"If you were not a giddy, gadding sparrow," she said, "with neither
mate nor nest of your own, you would know that without eggs and hot
sand to hatch them in, there would be no young in the world. Come, go
and try again. By this time the door should be open."
The sparrow was no quicker than were Toots and the Princess to profit
by this hint. They found the outer door of the Hippopotamus House still
closed; but that of the Lion House was open, and also one connecting
the two. As Pwit-Pwit hopped past the cage of the frolicsome lion cubs,
they tumbled over each other in their eagerness to greet him.
"Ho, Pwit-Pwit," they roared in their babyish voices, "stop and tell us
the news."
[Illustration]
"Wait till I come back," chirped the sparrow; "I'm busy now." And he
hurried on into the Hippopotamus House and to the big tank where old
Caliph was cooling himself after the excitement of the morning. Toots
and the Princess stopped within a yard of him, eager to hear what was
said between them.
"Is it indeed true?" demanded Pwit-Pwit. "Are you for the second time a
father?"
Caliph blinked at the sparrow, and seemed to be turning something over
in his mind. Presently he opened his mouth at least a yard and snorted
so loudly that the sparrow's feathers were drenched with the spray from
his nostrils.
"Such manners!" exclaimed Pwit-Pwit, shaking himself vigorously. "What
on earth are you laughing at?"
"Father for the second time," repeated Caliph, with a broad smile.
"Why, little one, my age is at least three-quarters of a century, and
all of our family wedded young. At least a score of the young with
which Fatimah has presented me are to-day rolling about the broad earth
in gaudily painted wheeled tanks for the amusement of the Master World.
Therefore, excuse me if I smile decorously at your inquiry if it be
true that I am indeed a father for the second time."
"Where are Fatimah and the new baby?" demanded the sparrow, shortly,
for Pwit-Pwit never approved of laughter at his own expense.
"You'll find them over in the next tank," answered the father
hippopotamus. "Never yet was there such a baby for the water. He has
been to the surface to breathe only twice since he was born. He will be
a great hippopotamus when he grows up."
"Do you mean to say," said Pwit-Pwit, in surprise, "that Fatimah found
the baby in the water to begin with?"
"Why, certainly," answered Caliph, "where would you expect to find a
new baby hippopotamus?"
[Illustration]
"Well, I wonder what Zuelma will say to that," chirped the sparrow, as
he hopped along to the margin of Fatimah's tank. All that could be seen
of the mother hippopotamus was a glistening yard or so of her black
back. This was floating about the tank in a manner that indicated no
little agitation below the surface. The cause was apparent when Fatimah
lifted her head out of the water, and said to Caliph:
"Alas! our new-born daughter is lost again. I have searched every
corner of the tank in vain. Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?"
"Do not agitate yourself, my beloved," answered Caliph. "The little one
is mischievous. Thus it was, I remember, with our first-born. Verily,
it is a good sign."
Suddenly, while Caliph was speaking, Fatimah plunged her nose into
the water, made a scooping motion, and rose quickly to the surface,
bringing the missing baby with her. The Princess shrieked with delight
at sight of the coffee-colored little image of its mother which lay
sprawling across her broad nose, blinking its eyes and blowing spray
from its nostrils.
[Illustration: The coffee-colored little image of its mother lay
sprawling across her broad nose.]
"A fine child, Fatimah," said Pwit-Pwit. "Many happy returns of the
day."
"Thank you very much, I'm sure," said Fatimah, while the new baby shook
its small ears in imitation of its mother. "But what a care these
babies are," she added with a sigh, "nobody but a mother knows."
Toots would have sworn that at this moment Caliph winked slyly at his
new daughter, and that the baby gave her father an answering wink. At
any rate, as Fatimah finished speaking, the baby slid from her nose
into the water with a splash, and sank out of sight.
"Drat the child!" said Fatimah. "There's no use," she added with a
snort that sent a ripple of waves over the surface of the water; "she
will do it. I shall simply leave her there, young as she is, till she
is obliged to come up for air. By the way, Pwit-Pwit, little one, how
are Cleopatra and her monkey baby this morning?"
"Quite well, thank you," answered the sparrow, "and Cleopatra sends
congratulations."
"Caliph, my love," said Fatimah, "I really think that in honor of the
occasion, we should send a polite message to Cleopatra. To be sure, I
don't approve of monkeys at all, but babies are babies, you know."
"Very well," said Caliph, gruffly, "send the chattering young creature
any message you like, only keep me out of it."
"My experience certainly is greater than Cleopatra's," said Fatimah,
addressing the sparrow, "and I would warn her against allowing her baby
to lie overlong in the sun. It is apt to crack the skin. I remember
when my first child was born--"
"Why, bless my eyes!" interrupted Pwit-Pwit, with a giggle, "Cleopatra
asked me to warn you against letting your baby get its feet wet."
"Well, I never!" gasped Fatimah in astonishment, while Caliph opened
his mouth till the Princess told Toots in a whisper that she could see
clear into his stomach, and laughed till the tears rolled down his
cheeks.
"Well, I must be going," said the sparrow. "Everybody is dying for the
news. Have you named the baby yet, Fatimah?"
"She shall be called Delilah, for her beauty," said the proud mother,
as her baby came gasping and sputtering to the surface. As Fatimah put
down her nose for her child to clamber upon, she said in a tone of
loving triumph:
"So-so, my child, it seems you still have some use for mother. Now
will you be good?"
Again the lion cubs roared at Pwit-Pwit as he was passing, demanding
the news:
"Where did the hippopotamus baby come from? Did somebody leave the door
open?"
"Fatimah found it at the bottom of her swimming tank," answered the
sparrow, and he passed on, leaving the cubs staring at each other in
wonderment.
When Pwit-Pwit had made the rounds with his gossip about the new baby,
all the Menial People who felt that their experience entitled them to
give advice touching the bringing up of children, addressed themselves,
one at a time, to Fatimah and Caliph.
"As to the new babe," said the dromedary, speaking first, "I would give
a bit of advice. Many a babe has suffered in its early days from lack
of water. So it was with my brother. His tongue became so parched that
he was never able to converse above a whisper. I pray you, madam, to
see that your babe has water to drink at least once a week."
"Ho-ho, ha-ha!" laughed Caliph. "Water once a week, and only to drink--"
"Hush, my dear," said Fatimah, "the dromedary means well, but, being of
the desert, he knows no better."
"If you would have his legs grow slim and straight," said Dozel, the
Indian doe, "you must let him run over the hills as much as possible
while yet young. But I would warn you to beware of the dogs and wolves."
"For exercise to strengthen the body there is nothing like leaping,"
roared Sultan, the lion. "Before I was a year old I could leap full
twenty feet to the shoulders of an antelope, and never miss."
"Ho-ho, ha-ha!" roared Caliph again, till reproved by Fatimah. But the
picture of any hippopotamus, young or old, running over the hills, or
leaping on to the shoulders of an antelope, was irresistibly funny,
and Caliph continued to chuckle till Duchess, Mahmoud's faithful mate,
concluded the chapter on how to bring up a young hippopotamus with the
following sensible advice:
"Behold, O Fatimah," she said, "one or two matters which may have
slipped your memory, upon which I would give you counsel. If the mother
be sound, and the new-born babe be without blot or blemish, there is
little to be feared. Yet, in my time, have I seen the young over-eager
for their food, so that they grow to be unnaturally ravenous, in
time ruining their digestion and destroying their moral sense. Such
a disposition noticed early in infancy is easily corrected, as you
well know. If your babe displays an inclination to turn her head more
to one side than to the other when sleeping, I would remind you that
this is frequently the cause of an ill-balanced skull, destructive of
that beautiful symmetry characteristic of the normal adult members of
both our species. Moreover, let not thy offspring accustom herself to
chewing her food on one side of her mouth--a common affectation among
infants. The danger from this source is teeth short on one side and
long on the other, and a jaw awry. In these days, as you well know,
Fatimah, it is difficult to obtain for a daughter a desirable mate if
she be not well favored."
"Thank you, my dear," said Fatimah, when Duchess had ceased speaking.
"You'll excuse me now, I'm sure; my baby hasn't had a nap since it was
born."
Presently, all through the Menial World was heard the plaintive melody
of the Hippopotamus Cradle Song, and for an hour after it had ceased,
even Pwit-Pwit and the Monkeys were silent.