Two in a Zoo Read online

  CHAPTER III

  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 theKeepers of the Menial World. Evidences of a stupendous mystery wereapparent 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 LionHouse adjoining it. The Princess, devoured by curiosity, deluged Tootswith questions. While awaiting developments, they were feeding peanutsto Zuelma, the vain young mother ostrich. For quite a while the littleLimping Boy was unable to get any light on the mystery.

  "If the sparrow were only here," said the Princess, "there would be alot 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 hasroared under his breath, and a moment ago the tigers were snarling. Thesecret will soon be out--"

  At that instant, Sultan, patriarch of the lions, delivered himself ofa mighty roar. Even the Princess could tell by the sound of it that itwas not a roar of anger.

  "Good!" said Toots, "that is old Sultan's call for rejoicing. Nowlisten."

  Mahmoud was first to reply. The old elephant trumpeted a heartyresponse, in which the other elephants joined. After that there weregrowls from the bears, snarls from the tigers and pumas, and anextraordinary chattering among the monkeys. Throughout all the MenialWorld there was only one note of discord, one failure to respondheartily 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 givescause for rejoicing?"

  The roar with which Sultan prefaced his reply was so terrible that theill-favored beast cowered back into the farthest corner of his den.Said Sultan:

  "Not for this suspicious, thieving, ill-conditioned creature, but forall the loyal inhabitants of the Menial World shall the answer begiven. Harken to the voice of Caliph, the Wise."

  For a moment there was deep silence. Then spoke Caliph, patriarch ofthe hippopotami, in his rumbling roar, resembling that of the cataractsof the Upper Nile, within the sound of which his youth had been spent:

  "Lo, Fatimah, my beloved mate, hath an infant daughter. Mother andchild are doing well; therefore, rejoice."

  Whereat there was such general and hearty rejoicing that all the housesof the Menial People rocked on their foundations. But when the soundof it had died away, the aged hyena could be heard snarling:

  "Pooh! only one? Though my mate brought me four daughters and a son onemorning as I was gnawing the leg bone of a sheep, yet I made no uproarabout it."

  "That is because you are a selfish, thieving, carrion-eating oldhypocrite," 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 the little LimpingBoy, in whose hand that of the Princess--somewhat frightened by theuproar among the animals--was tightly clasped. Suddenly, Pwit-Pwit, theSparrow gossip and news-gatherer for all the Menial People, fluttereddown 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 andtrumpeting. How is it, Pwit-Pwit, that so much fuss is made over asingle baby? Were the other eggs eaten by the crocodiles?"

  "As soon as I heard the call for rejoicing," said the sparrow, "I flewat once to the Hippopotamus House; but the door was shut and no onecame to let me in. But it sticks in my mind, Zuelma, that the young ofthe 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 neithermate nor nest of your own, you would know that without eggs and hotsand to hatch them in, there would be no young in the world. Come, goand try again. By this time the door should be open."

  The sparrow was no quicker than were Toots and the Princess to profitby this hint. They found the outer door of the Hippopotamus House stillclosed; but that of the Lion House was open, and also one connectingthe 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 usthe news."

  "Wait till I come back," chirped the sparrow; "I'm busy now." And hehurried on into the Hippopotamus House and to the big tank where oldCaliph was cooling himself after the excitement of the morning. Tootsand the Princess stopped within a yard of him, eager to hear what wassaid between them.

  "Is it indeed true?" demanded Pwit-Pwit. "Are you for the second time afather?"

  Caliph blinked at the sparrow, and seemed to be turning something overin his mind. Presently he opened his mouth at least a yard and snortedso loudly that the sparrow's feathers were drenched with the spray fromhis nostrils.

  "Such manners!" exclaimed Pwit-Pwit, shaking himself vigorously. "Whaton 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, andall of our family wedded young. At least a score of the young withwhich Fatimah has presented me are to-day rolling about the broad earthin gaudily painted wheeled tanks for the amusement of the Master World.Therefore, excuse me if I smile decorously at your inquiry if it betrue 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 fatherhippopotamus. "Never yet was there such a baby for the water. He hasbeen to the surface to breathe only twice since he was born. He will bea great hippopotamus when he grows up."

  "Do you mean to say," said Pwit-Pwit, in surprise, "that Fatimah foundthe baby in the water to begin with?"

  "Why, certainly," answered Caliph, "where would you expect to find anew baby hippopotamus?"

  "Well, I wonder what Zuelma will say to that," chirped the sparrow, ashe hopped along to the margin of Fatimah's tank. All that could be seenof the mother hippopotamus was a glistening yard or so of her blackback. This was floating about the tank in a manner that indicated nolittle agitation below the surface. The cause was apparent when Fatimahlifted her head out of the water, and said to Caliph:

  "Alas! our new-born daughter is lost again. I have searched everycorner of the tank in vain. Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?"

  "Do not agitate yourself, my beloved," answered Caliph. "The little oneis 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 intothe water, made a scooping motion, and rose quickly to the surface,bringing the missing baby with her. The Princess shrieked with delightat sight of the coffee-colored little image of its mother which laysprawling across her broad nose, blinking its eyes and blowing sprayfrom its nostrils.

  The coffee-colored little image of its mother laysprawling across her broad nose.]

  "A fine child, Fatimah," said Pwit-Pwit. "Many happy returns of theday."

  "Thank you very much, I'm sure," said Fatimah, while the new baby shookits small ears in imitation of its mother. "But what a care thesebabies are," she added with a sigh, "nobody but a mother knows."

  Toots would have sworn that at this moment Caliph winked slyly at hisnew daughter, and that the baby gave her father an answering wink. Atany rate, as Fatimah finished speaking, the baby slid from her noseinto the water with a splash, and sank out of sight.

  "Dr
at the child!" said Fatimah. "There's no use," she added with asnort that sent a ripple of waves over the surface of the water; "shewill do it. I shall simply leave her there, young as she is, till sheis obliged to come up for air. By the way, Pwit-Pwit, little one, howare Cleopatra and her monkey baby this morning?"

  "Quite well, thank you," answered the sparrow, "and Cleopatra sendscongratulations."

  "Caliph, my love," said Fatimah, "I really think that in honor of theoccasion, we should send a polite message to Cleopatra. To be sure, Idon't approve of monkeys at all, but babies are babies, you know."

  "Very well," said Caliph, gruffly, "send the chattering young creatureany 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 babyto lie overlong in the sun. It is apt to crack the skin. I rememberwhen my first child was born--"

  "Why, bless my eyes!" interrupted Pwit-Pwit, with a giggle, "Cleopatraasked me to warn you against letting your baby get its feet wet."

  "Well, I never!" gasped Fatimah in astonishment, while Caliph openedhis mouth till the Princess told Toots in a whisper that she could seeclear into his stomach, and laughed till the tears rolled down hischeeks.

  "Well, I must be going," said the sparrow. "Everybody is dying for thenews. 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 putdown her nose for her child to clamber upon, she said in a tone ofloving triumph:

  "So-so, my child, it seems you still have some use for mother. Nowwill you be good?"

  Again the lion cubs roared at Pwit-Pwit as he was passing, demandingthe news:

  "Where did the hippopotamus baby come from? Did somebody leave the dooropen?"

  "Fatimah found it at the bottom of her swimming tank," answered thesparrow, and he passed on, leaving the cubs staring at each other inwonderment.

  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 togive 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 givea bit of advice. Many a babe has suffered in its early days from lackof water. So it was with my brother. His tongue became so parched thathe was never able to converse above a whisper. I pray you, madam, tosee 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 ofthe desert, he knows no better."

  "If you would have his legs grow slim and straight," said Dozel, theIndian doe, "you must let him run over the hills as much as possiblewhile 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 fulltwenty feet to the shoulders of an antelope, and never miss."

  "Ho-ho, ha-ha!" roared Caliph again, till reproved by Fatimah. But thepicture of any hippopotamus, young or old, running over the hills, orleaping 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 thefollowing sensible advice:

  "Behold, O Fatimah," she said, "one or two matters which may haveslipped your memory, upon which I would give you counsel. If the motherbe sound, and the new-born babe be without blot or blemish, there islittle to be feared. Yet, in my time, have I seen the young over-eagerfor their food, so that they grow to be unnaturally ravenous, intime ruining their digestion and destroying their moral sense. Sucha disposition noticed early in infancy is easily corrected, as youwell know. If your babe displays an inclination to turn her head moreto one side than to the other when sleeping, I would remind you thatthis is frequently the cause of an ill-balanced skull, destructive ofthat beautiful symmetry characteristic of the normal adult members ofboth our species. Moreover, let not thy offspring accustom herself tochewing her food on one side of her mouth--a common affectation amonginfants. The danger from this source is teeth short on one side andlong 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 ifshe 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 wasborn."

  Presently, all through the Menial World was heard the plaintive melodyof the Hippopotamus Cradle Song, and for an hour after it had ceased,even Pwit-Pwit and the Monkeys were silent.