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Babes in the wood, a romance of the jungles
Babes in the wood a romance of the jungles Author:Bithia Mary Croker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III PAHARI TRAFFORD was a light-weight, there was not an ounce of superfluous flesh upon his frame ; and the pony Gehazi, realizing that he was homew... more »ard bound, cantered ahead with a lively even pace that spoke of an Arab ancestor whose desert blood rose superior to hard work and scanty fare. The track lay along the banks of brimming watercourses, across open glades, through patches of tall, wet grass, overtopping and sprinkling the horseman ; right and left soared hillsides clothed with dazzling green sal trees, and delicate bamboo thickets, entangled in orchids and flowering creepers. Not a sound disturbed the silence, save the rustling of leaves as a squirrel ran up a tree, or the far-away cry of a peacock, " Pee-hawn ! Pee-hawn ! Pee-hawn ! " Animated by the stimulating consciousness of being for the first time in his life "his own master,"Traffordrode onward through this strange and vivid country, eye and ear alert to each novel sight and sound, as absolutely happy as it is possible for mortal to be. With youth and hope tingling in his veins, his hand stretched forth to touch a long-desired goal, his cup was not merely full, but actually running over. This incredibly fortunate young man had not a care in the world—beyond a faint doubt as to whether the five rupees he had bestowed on the Kennedys' butler was an adequate "tip" for that bearded and majestic individual. Trafford, filled with a sense of rapture, burst into song ; sang, at the top of his pleasant tenor voice, rousing hunting lays and snatches of popular operas—melodies forced from his lips by the sheer joy of living ; and the unaccustomed white pony twitched his thin sensitive ears, whilst the running syce calmly concluded that the young sahib was drunk—already ! His master was indeed intoxicate...« less