A VERY STRANGE HAPPENING.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19887, 16 May 1936, Page 18 (Supplement)

A VERY STRANGE HAPPENING.

•* She knows me perfectly well. Mummy darling,” called Betty with Joyous conviction, as she came racing up” the veranda steps and chucked her topee on to a wicker chair. "At llrst. I believe, she wasn't absolutely sure. She was a teeny scrap suspicious, but fairly tame. Now she’s started to lick me again, like she used to do when I was small and she thought l was a calf or something. 1 am so frightfully glad! Many people don’t have a cow who’ll lick them, do they, Mum?" . . Mummy—to give her her whole name, Mrs Dick llowison—- looked up from her busy hands and regarded her one daughter with thoughtful interest, fur that daughter had been at school In England, had come out lo Ceylon for the winter, and was going back in spring to finish at another school in Europe. Betty had gone to school when she was twelve, and now arrived back at her lovely home in the hills, tall, strong, very pretty and fifteen — changed In a way. but entirely unchanged as regarded her love for her animals and her out-of-door interests. Sparks, the white terrier, greeted her with riotous joy; John, a black-and-white kitten when Betty left, had become a large placid mother cat, regardless of her name; she had deceived everybody, which was disgraceful. Lastly there were the twelve dancing Princesses and Ruby the Queen —she was a large Australian cow, red in colour, strong and big, with fine horns. The Princesses, by the way. were a lively party of fowls; some of them no doubt were Princes; they were not so very interesting, as they cared chiefly for anyone who fed them. All the others knew Betty personally and welcomed her back to the Mount Royal estate, where the big cool house stood nearly live thousand feet up among the lira and gruvillia trees, which are very like an English mountain ash. , . For miles and miles at the back of the gardens the real jungle clothed the heights, jungle in which existed weird villages, weirder little people who used bows and arrows, and animals of many kinds that were by no means pleasant neighbours, lor instaiiL'p. the Tie bolonga, which is a Siu.ke about torn' (eel in length which wU I 9 p r i n g at you if attacked; Its bite can kill you hi ten minutes. There Is a story about the Tic. hut the present adventure is with a creature very htt e, if any, less dangerous. That depends Betty had ~1 Mount Royal a week when the thing happened. Also »m. was not alone- apart from her busy parents—as Noel A-eott hail come on a visit from a neighbouring estate to bear her company, play tennis alter four o'clock, amt so on. It was a lovely life. Out at halfeast five when Betty tied on a large apron and went to milk Ruby and Iced th" eager Princesses, she was keen on helping alt she knew, and had done these things when she was but ten. Iter father was busy up till the si\o'etock muster of the regiment of men coolies and her mother did hundreds of things besides making butter and looking after tire garden, which was a dream with Its peach trees, llowers. and fruit. Its views over miles o( country and rivers—a sort ot fairyland in tact. About fifty yards from' the lug andaed house was a knoll clothed tn Pr trees, and among the ttrs stood a rtuatnt hut with little peep-hole windows. The hut was raised on small tubs because of the Hooding ruins In the wet season, which lasts, roughly, from October to (Ihrislmas. Sometimes villages are washed away so that it will be seen the little tubs on which Betty's hut stood were necessary, even on high ground. Tilts rainy season, the monsoon had not broken vet. but It would do so before long, so there prevailed a feeling that It was wise to get things done, met ready for tie’ moment when the ' torrenti d downpour would stop that sort of work. Mrs llowison smiled approvingly on the pail of milk carried in by her daughter, and listened to the story ot ’"• had 1 and 1 are going over to oientster to play tennis later on: would von and Sandy like to rorne. or what?" Sand', by the way. was Noel's usual name, by reason of her hair perhaps. ltetu considered the weighty dues licit and decided against going to , ,'see. Mumy." site said, ex ,ei“v..r, and' I - now all' our doings. Uter ~ bit we shall be k. i ii a . out and have tennis, but, two. If we warn, .in-: now we are soup's (.willfully keen on getting I in the jungle up at the back. I \*> wnt an idea about it. quit#* a fresh i r ;• 1 Sanely thinks it is absolutely

By E. E. Cowper.

topping—naturally we want to experiment and see how it answers. You do want heaps of wood, don't you? ” Mrs llowison agreed that she needed any amount of wood, and wanted to know what the plan was. Betty, sitting on the step of a big window, elaborated her idea ’ with earnestness. ” The wood we collect burns away so fast,” she said, fanning herself with her green-lined topee hat. "You see, Mummy darling, it’s vital to get larger logs, so we decided to use Reb, and later on, when we've done it, you and Dad cun see the plan, but we must prove it first. We can’t boast till we’ve got something to show.” Let it be said that Reb —short for Rehoboam—was a donkey that Betty hud ridden when she llrst came to this land of fascination; now that she had grown rather big for a small donkey, she was planning a new use for Reb, who was practically at war—class war —with all mankind except Betty, for whom he would actually work. That was why lie had been called Rehoboam —he always gave buck answers of an uuamiable ” description to a civil request. “I’ll make him behave," said Betty, “you’ll see. Sandy is awfully keen on this idea. She likes sensible things—so do I.”

Thus it came to pass that the two girls went off to the woods at the back of the house, accompanied by reluctant Reb, and carrying two long ropes. They heard the car depart, and had a joyous sense of being on their own and doing good work. This jungle wood was not at all unlike an English wood, except that the huge ferns of various kinds were like trees, and everywhere little brown monkeys chattered and swung on the high branches. Back and back Into the hot stillness went the girls, and finding what they wanted—a fairly big log—they set about trying the plan, which was this. The two ropes, fastened like traces to Reb’s collar, were tied toy their ends to the log. Then Reb was induced to pull that log back to the house. Several journeys were achieved with success, the logs lying fairly handy, and toeing of moderate size. For the fourth journey, however, the girls went a little farther hack Into the jungle, and Bel) proved extremely tiresome. He would not start, his long ears jerked this way and that, finally lying Hat hack in a queer uneasy manBetty reasoned with him to small purpose; tie was quiet for a minute or two. then he backed, twisted, and tried to get away towards the house, ceasing to take, any interest in grass of possible food snatches. “How awfully quiet the monkeys are! “ said Betty, in a warm pause. “I wonder! Don’t they like Reb, or are they going to sleep? Just look, Sandy, how they crowd up to each other I” Sandy stood very still, staring back into Hie wood, her rather sharp little nose lifted. “ Hum!” she murmured, holding up a warning finger. “ Hush a moment!” Betty laid a soothing hand on Reb’s neck. In the tense silence that followed there was a sudden gust of the weird wind that sometimes rises from nowhere and just drops. It came from the jungle with a faint moaning sob. passed across with a rustling shiver, stirring the tree ferns and rocking the boughs, dropping as though it were tired. " Well?” questioned Sandy, turning to look at her friend. “ Couldn't you smell It then? ” (To be continued next week.)