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. [pg 52]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 [pg 53]sultan's call for rejoicing. now listen."
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?"
[pg 54]
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 [pg 55]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.
zuelma, with her bill wide open, as is her custom while listening, stood with her long neck craned over the head of [pg 56]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?"
crocodile
"as soon as i heard the call for rejoicing," said the sparrow, "i flew at once to the hippopotamus house; but the door was [pg 57]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 [pg 58]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."
stop and tell us the news
"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 [pg 59]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 [pg 60]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 [pg 61]the baby in the water to begin with?"
"why, certainly," answered caliph, "where would you expect to find a new baby hippopotamus?"
"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 [pg 62]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.
"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 [pg 66]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—"
[pg 67]
"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 [pg 68]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 [pg 69]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."
[pg 70]
"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 [pg 71]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."
[pg 72]
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.
