u,;>^» 
 
 CHEEVER 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSIY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 SOUTH ASLA COl \ r^^-QM 
 KROC^LI^^ 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 924 075 790 968 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924075790968 
 
A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL 
 IN INDIA. 
 
A 
 
 LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL 
 
 IN INDIA 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRIET A. CHEEVER 
 
 AUTHOR or "LITTLE MISS BOSTON," LITTLE MK. VAlf VBRB OF 
 CHINA," ETC. 
 
 lEIlnettateli iig 
 H. C. IRELAND. 
 
 BOSTON 
 LITTLE, BEOWN, AND COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1900, 
 By Littlb, Bbown, and Company. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
To my dear sister, who, after repeated 
 journeyings in far distant lands, turns 
 always joyfully toward Boston, the fair 
 city of our birth, this book is lovingly 
 inscribed. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapteb. Page, 
 
 I. A Stolen Eide .... 1 
 
 II. At the Table 13 
 
 III. At the Fort 
 
 IV. Running Away .... 
 V. In the Temple 
 
 VI. Yampa Explains .... 
 
 VII. "Glo-eee ?" 
 
 VIII. On the Esplanade 
 IX. Natives and Bazaars 
 X. A Crowd and Dog Star Worshippers 
 XI. The Serpent Charmers 
 XII. A Naughty Day : The Bhendi Bazaar 
 XIII. The Same — Continued . 
 XrV. A Bit of History and an Invitation 
 XV. The Nautch Dance .... 
 XVI. The Return and a Joyous Promise 
 
 XVII. The Journey 
 
 XVIII. In America 
 
 XIX. The Snow 
 
 XX. Boston 
 
 XXI. The Hurdt Gurdy .... 
 XXII. Holiday Joys .... 
 
 22 
 
 32 
 
 45 
 
 55 
 
 70 
 
 86 
 
 102 
 
 114 
 
 129 
 
 142 
 
 155 
 
 174 
 
 183 
 
 197 
 
 203 
 
 215 
 
 226 
 
 239 
 
 251 
 
 265 
 
 XXIII. What Judy Loved .... 276 
 
A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL 
 IN INDIA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A STOLEN RIDE. 
 
 " "11 yriSS Judy, I tell you what it is, ma'selle, 
 J3_l_ if you not stop that jximpin' roun' 
 while I a-dressin' you, I stop right now ! Here 
 I been a ara-tire five minutes arndeavor-in to 
 tie this sash, an' the ex-quis-it silk all a-goin' 
 in strings with me so hard a-pullin' at it." 
 
 " Don't be cross, Meejee, I'll be like a mouse 
 the rest of the time, but do be quick ! Papa 
 might come any minute and go away again 
 without my seeing him, then wouldn't you 
 wish you had hurried ! " 
 
 " Oh now no danger, hi ma'selle. You -pa-pa 
 won't come soon — not yet. And the dinner 
 
 1 (1) 
 
2 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. . 
 
 must you have direc'ly, 'cause you pa^a lie 
 say you not a-wait for him after seex o'clock, 
 and far away it is from that this lao-ment." 
 
 Judy stood still while her sash was made 
 into beautiful long, wide loops, then off she 
 skipped to the dining-room. 
 
 " Dinner's served, Missy," said a taU, digni- 
 fied Arab, speaking excellent Enghsh. But 
 Judy broke in, 
 
 "I want dinner on the veranda, Bappo; 
 when Papa comes I must see him at once." 
 
 Bappo seemed to reahze the uselessness of 
 refusing " Missy's " order, and placing a Httle 
 table on the veranda, several dishes were soon 
 placed before the little maiden who ate rapidly, 
 meantime keeping a sharp look adown the 
 winding carriage drive. 
 
 " Missy eats too fast," said the butler, as he 
 put a tiny cup of chocolate before the little 
 lady, and considering it was the last thing she 
 was to have, Bappo thought had been reached 
 altogether too soon. 
 
 " Oh, I've had enough," said Judy, as she 
 wisped her delicate napkin into a mere ball 
 
A STOLEN EIDB. 3 
 
 and tossed it on the table. The next minute 
 she was darting in and out of the shrubbery 
 still keeping that sharp outlook along the drive. 
 
 " Miss Judy," called Meejee, " please come 
 and get you scarf. You pa-pa he say he will 
 not take you out again if you have it not. 
 Come direc'ly ma'seUe." 
 
 Judy would have called back ordering Mee- 
 jee to bring the scarf herself, only that she 
 heard the closing of a distant door, and knew 
 her nurse had passed out of hearing. 
 
 The child darted like a little wild thing to 
 the second story of the spacious house, searched 
 a moment or two in her wide, airy room, then 
 rushed with her scarf back to the veranda just 
 as a tail, distinguished looking man of about 
 thirty-five who had hastily entered the house 
 was about leaving it again. 
 
 " Oh, papa," cried Judy, " I'm so glad you've 
 come ! I'm going out with you when you go. 
 Where's the carriage ? " 
 
 " No, not to-night, little one," said Mr. Hicks, 
 catching up the little girl and kissing her af- 
 fectionately. "Papa's going to dine at the 
 
4 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Port with a party of gentlemen, and you must 
 drive some other time." 
 
 Judy's Up curled, and both her childish voice 
 and violet eyes were fuU of grief. "But I must 
 go, papa ! Here I've been waiting for you all 
 the afternoon, and now you can't drive away 
 again without me." 
 
 Mr. Hicks laughed. " There are one or two 
 things you can't quite make papa do," he said, 
 showing a perfect set of white teeth, "and 
 when I go to dine with a mess, taking my 
 precious little girl along is one of them." 
 
 The grieved lip went out still a httle further 
 and tears were almost in the downcast violet 
 eyes. 
 
 Judy followed her papa to a corner of the 
 carriage drive where the coachman had been 
 told to remain, and the disappointed but shrewd 
 little girl guessed that the reason he had not 
 driven under the porte-cochere as usual was 
 because her papa had hoped to get away with- 
 out her having seen him. 
 
 When Mr. Hicks after again kissing his little 
 daughter, entered the glittering carriage, with 
 
A STOLEN EIDE. 5 
 
 its fine bays tossing their thick manes, and 
 said " Good-bye, little darling, be a good child 
 and obey ayah," the " little darling " demurely 
 said, " Good-bye, papa," but the pensive look 
 in those pretty eyes was also full of quiet de- 
 termination. 
 
 Cid, the coachman, cracked his whip, and 
 off started the handsome equipage, the Indian 
 driver on the box conspicuous in a costly liv- 
 ery of which he was entirely conscious, an 
 equally showy footman beside him, the fine 
 looking gentleman lounging inside the car- 
 riage, and a little girl with a glossy mane of 
 bronze-gold hair streaming behind her, clinging 
 to the cross-bar at the back of the barouche. 
 
 The usual stream of carriages of nearly 
 every description was winding along the splen- 
 did drives of Malabar Hill. And the chang- 
 ing, flashing glory of the slowly descending 
 sun was over all, as the long line of surreys, 
 victorias, calashes, landaus and fancy two- 
 wheelers swept grandly along, descending ter- 
 race after terrace. 
 
 Considerably more than half a mile from 
 
b A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 his residence, Mr. Hicks became aware that 
 passers-by seemed to be making an attempt to 
 draw his attention to something. 
 
 At length a young man on horseback who 
 had overtaken the carriage sung out some- 
 thing to the driver. Cid immediately drew in 
 the lines, stopping the reluctant bays at the 
 side of the road. 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked Mr. Hicks. 
 
 " There 's someone caught on the carriage," 
 said the coachman, as Jon the footman was 
 about to leap down. 
 
 "Here, you remain where you are and let 
 me attend to it," said Mr. Hicks, a sudden 
 suspicion crossing his mind, and opening the 
 door he sprang from the barouche and was 
 immediately at the back of it, looking in 
 amazement at the plucky child still holding to 
 the cross-bar. 
 
 "Judy ! Oh, my naughty, naughty Judy ! " 
 he exclaimed, in tones he meant should be 
 only stern and full of reproof. 
 
 But gratitude at finding his venturesome 
 pet safe and imharmed sent a note of relief 
 
A STOLEN RIDE. 7 
 
 into his voice he did not mean should creep 
 in. Judy however was quick to notice it. 
 
 "What made you do such a dangerous, 
 dreadful thing ? " he asked. " Don't you know 
 you might have been thrown down and tram- 
 pled to death in all this crowd of carriages ? " 
 
 "No I shouldn't," said Judy brightly, 
 " because I would n't have let go. Besides — " 
 she all at once seemed to droop all over, — 
 "I could n't, couldn't let my own papa go away 
 and leave me all alone after I 'd been waiting 
 for him the whole afternoon." 
 
 Mr. Hicks felt in his heart that what he ought 
 to do would be to order Cid to turn about and 
 take the little midget home at once, in a much 
 safer way, however, than she had come. 
 
 But Judy had drawn down her violet eyes 
 and looked forlorn and forsaken when saying 
 she couldn't let "her own papa" go away 
 and leave her all alone after waiting for him 
 the whole afternoon. And he really never 
 forgot that he was father and mother both to 
 the child. 
 
 Ah ! that drooping air did for the Httle Eve 
 just what she meant it should. 
 
8 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " Poor little thing ! " her papa thought, "it 
 would break her little heart and be cruel to 
 send her back now." 
 
 So little Miss Judith Hicks sat resplendent 
 beside her father, rolling along toward the 
 Fort in her dusty white dress, the wide sash 
 in wonderfully good order considering the air- 
 ing it had had, and her pretty, pale httle face 
 perfectly smiling and content, now that she 
 was having her own sweet way. 
 
 " Papa," she asked, " what kind of a mess 
 are you going to dine in ? " 
 
 " That reminds me that my little girl has 
 made me real trouble by insisting on following 
 me. Here am I, expecting to dine with some 
 officers of her majesty's Indian Government, 
 and I cannot very properly take with me an 
 extra guest." 
 
 " Oh, yes you can ! " cried Judy blithely. " I 
 won't hurt anybody. Tell the officers of her 
 Majesty's mess that your poor little girl can't 
 stay alone with only a housekeeper and ser- 
 vants all the time, and to-night you — ^you had 
 to bring her." 
 
A STOLEN RIDE. 9 
 
 " Yes," laughed her papa, " that would be 
 true enough. Perhaps I had better tell them 
 the whole story, eh, my little dear ? " 
 
 " Oh, I'm willing," said Judy serenely. 
 
 As the "Fort" takes in nearly all one side 
 of Bombay city bordering on the water, they 
 soon came to fine large public buildings, some 
 of them government offices. There were also 
 churches looming here and there and pretty 
 cottages ranging in picture-Uke order. 
 
 At one end of the Fort where a hill thickly 
 covered with trees was reached, were a great 
 many bungalows in which dwelt the govern- 
 ment officers. Here too were beautiful gar- 
 dens laid out in terraces, and well back in 
 them were the magnificent homes of wealthy 
 Parsees, a sect of whom we shall learn more 
 by and by. 
 
 A "bungalow" is a decidedly Eastern 
 dweUing, and is sometimes called " a garden 
 house." It frequently has but a single story 
 with a veranda or piazza running all around 
 it ; others are two or three stories high. Gen- 
 erally also the roof is either covered with tiles. 
 
10 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 which are squares of thin baked clay, or else 
 it is thatched, that is, thickly covered with 
 straw, which protects it either from the hot 
 sun-rays or the rain. 
 
 Before one of the larger bungalows the car- 
 riage stopped, and several gentlemen who were 
 seated on the veranda in hght bamboo arm- 
 chairs came forward to greet Mr. Hicks, who 
 must have been a favorite with them, judging 
 from the way in which he was welcomed. 
 
 Straightway Judy found herself in clover, 
 and felt perfectly delighted that she had man- 
 aged to visit what her papa called " the mess " 
 even without having been invited. 
 
 " I had to bring this little lady along," her 
 father explained laughingly, " simply because 
 she ensconced herself about the carriage with- 
 out my knowing it." But an old officer with 
 a gray beard, and with straps on his shoulder, 
 who was already shaking hands with diminu- 
 tive — which means small — Judy, cried out, 
 
 " Bravo ! bravo ! little mistress ! Never you 
 let papa run ofE and leave his little puss be- 
 hind him. You shall have the seat of honor, 
 
A STOLEN EIDE. 11 
 
 my little dear, beside the host at table, you 
 shall indeed ! and our Uttle man of the com- 
 pany shall have the other. Why not, eh ? " 
 
 " Might I shaket bonds wi' the bit lass ? " 
 asked a tall Scotchman, who with a Scot's nat- 
 ural fondness for children had spied the " wee 
 bairnie," and came forward for a word and a 
 possible frohc with lively Judy. 
 
 " I 'm dret'f ul glad I came," said Judy with 
 a sparkhng glance from her violet eyes toward 
 her father. 
 
 " An' 'tis oop wi' yer gay leetle bonnet ye 
 shell fly, because ye ganged hither the nicht! " 
 cried the jovial Scotsman, tossing Judy to his 
 high shoulder as he spoke, and taking a few 
 steps to the music of an orchestra on a far end 
 of the veranda. 
 
 Judy laughed softly with delight, but just 
 then she caught from her high perch the merry 
 eyes of a quiet boy, who, sitting between two 
 gentlemen had been looking at some engrav- 
 ings, but now was regarding her with a look of 
 amusement. This made her understand what 
 the old officer had meant by " our httle man 
 
12 A LITTLE AMEKICASr GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 of the company," who he said should sit at 
 the other side of the host. 
 
 As the tail man stepped ghbly off to the 
 music's time, Judy said demurely, 
 
 " There's a boy over there, is n't there ? " 
 
 " Bless ye, an' there is ! " said the hearty 
 voice of her cavaUer. " An' wot am I ? Or 
 wot is onny son o' me fayther's hoose in the 
 bright een o' a bonny leetle lass compaired to 
 a wimsy boy ? 'Tis oover we 'U gang an' make 
 the laddie's acquaintance." 
 
 The next moment her towering friend hav- 
 ing put Judy to the floor said soberly, " Young 
 meesther mon, let me maket ye acquaint wi 
 canty leetle misthrees Runaway. Shake-it yer 
 bonds now richt freendly ! " 
 
 At that, the pretty, but shy looking boy ex- 
 tended his hand without a word, while Judy 
 exclaimed softly, 
 
 " Oh, I'm so glad, so glad you're here ! 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT THE TABLE. 
 
 WHEN the table was reached, the jolly 
 host changed his mind about putting 
 the little maid at one side of himself, and the 
 laddie at the other. 
 
 " You 'U be having the gayer time if you 're 
 together," he said, " so the small lady shall sit 
 at my right hand, and then little master shall 
 sit at your right hand. Ah, that's better! 
 Is n't it now?" 
 
 Judy fluttered to her place with the assur- 
 ance of a petted only child, while Perry Wake- 
 field followed more slowly, but with a satisfied 
 countenance, that showed the pleasure he felt 
 at Judy's presence. 
 
 As the highly-seasoned soup was being en- 
 joyed by the men, the irrepressible Judy-- 
 
14 A LITTLE AHEEICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 that means a child too full of life to keep quiet 
 — said softly, " How long are you going to 
 stay ? " 
 
 " I don't know. My mamma is in England, 
 because she did n't want to come as far as In- 
 dia, but I wanted to come so badly that papa 
 brought me. We shan't be here very long." 
 
 " Once I knew another boy from England," 
 said Judy, " but he didn't talk as you do." 
 
 " Oh, but I'm an American boy," said Perry 
 quickly. "We're just traveUing, papa and 
 mamma and I." 
 
 " Ooh ! Are you from America ? " exclaimed 
 Judy, but she spoke in an undertone as the 
 gentlemen were talking more loudly among 
 themselves, leaving Judy and Perry to their 
 own brisk remarks. 
 
 " That is where I mean to go one of these 
 days," Judy added. " My papa is an Ameri- 
 can, so was my mamma, and papa's aunt is 
 living there now. You see my poor mamma 
 went away when I was only two days old, so 
 papa gen' rally does what I want him to — oh 
 dear ! " giggled Judy interrupting herself, " I 
 
AT THE TABLE. 15 
 
 did something awful to-night, do you want to 
 hear about it?" 
 
 Perry did want to hear at once, and the next 
 moment both children were chuckUng at a 
 great rate over Judy's exploit. 
 
 " Jolly ! my father would have walked me 
 back Spanish, as fast as I could tramp if I had 
 played a trick like that on him," said Perry. 
 
 "Oh, but it wasn't exactly a trick," Judy 
 replied, bridling a little. " I'm all papa has 
 for family, except that old auntie in America, 
 and she does n't count, so of course I'm a good 
 deal of — of — importance to him." 
 
 "Yes, and I 'm all my papa has for children," 
 Perry hurried to add, " but I 'd have been 
 marched home dancing if I had hung on that 
 way." 
 
 Judy looked sober a moment. "Yes, but 
 your papa has your mamma," she argued, "so 
 you 're not everything in the world he has ; I 
 am with my papa, you see." 
 
 Perry tried to be polite and " see," but he 
 couldn't help saying, "My papa wouldn't 
 stand some things, not if I was his last friend." 
 
16 A LITTLE AMERICAN &IEL IN INDIA. 
 
 " I wish you was going to be close by us," 
 sighed Judy. " I 'm not allowed to play with 
 scarcely any children, so if you could only be 
 near our house what fun we 'd have. Winks! 
 would n't we though ! There ! Papa Hicks 
 says I must n't say " winks " every little while, 
 because it is n't ladyfied, but once in a while 
 it does me good to say it with a httle squeak, 
 so I have to." 
 
 "I heard papa say," began Perry, "that we 
 were not going to stay at the Fort, but were 
 to visit on some hill, and I think at a house 
 that was named 'Welcome.' " 
 
 "Was it at the ViUa Welcome?" asked 
 Judy, starting up, her eyes growing so large 
 that in spite of himself Perry had to laugh. 
 
 " Yes, it was just that," he said. 
 
 " Oh, glo-ree f " Judy brought out the low 
 cry with a rising tone at the end of the word, 
 like a question ; at the same time she wrung 
 her Uttle hands together with a gesture of per- 
 fect joy. 
 
 " Won't we have splen-6id times ! " she went 
 on, " but I '11 tell you what it is, we '11 have to 
 
AT THE TABLE. 17 
 
 be dreadful-ly careful about one thing," and 
 she drew down her face to a droll expression, 
 it was so sober and so knowing. 
 
 "What's the danger," asked Perry with 
 laughing eyes. 
 
 " Well, you see," began Judy, " my greatest 
 trial is my nurse, my ayah, as they caU her 
 here, Meejee." 
 
 " Is she an Indian woman ? " 
 
 " Yes, she 's a Hindu, that is, she was born 
 here, but most a hundred years ago when she 
 was young," Judy had to laugh softly, " she 
 went over to Breach Candy, that 's to the right 
 of our hill, a place close to the sea, and took 
 care of a Httle boy there for most three years. 
 The little boy's mother was a Frenchman," 
 — Judy made the remarkable statement with a 
 Uttle show of dignity, " but she talked Enghsh 
 very well, and Meejee learned it of her, so 
 papa says Meejee talks English hke a 'Frenchy.' 
 But, oh dear, she is such a trial ! " 
 
 "What makes her ? " asked Perry, " and do 
 you have a nurse now ? " 
 
 " Why, yes indeed, don't you ? " 
 2 
 
18 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " No, I rather think not ! I used to have 
 one when I was a Kttle shaver, but what would 
 I want of a nurse now ? " 
 
 " Well," — with a sigh — " Meejee has had the 
 care of me ever since I was a year old, and how 
 I wish she had n't ! But little girls on our hill 
 can't run about without always having some 
 one with them. Ooh, I '11 tell you what we 
 might do. Are n't you older than I am ? I 'm 
 seven." 
 
 " Yes, I am almost nine, and ever so much 
 larger than you are . Are n ' t y ou httle though ? ' ' 
 
 " Now I mean to get papa to put me in your 
 care, then won't we see the sights ! Winks ! 
 Won't we see things ? " 
 
 They both laughed merrily, then Perry said, 
 " Yes, but if I promised to take care of you, I 
 should have to, you know, my papa would ex- 
 pect it. You 'd let me, would n't you ? " 
 
 " Cert'nly I would," cried Judy. " You 
 could do the same as Meejee does, and that 
 would be to walk a little back of me and keep 
 saying," — she put on a little mincing air and 
 a kind of fault-finding tone, — " ' Do not walk 
 
AT THE TABLE. ' 19 
 
 too fast, Miss Judy. Miss Judy, you must care- 
 ful be ! Ah, ma'selle, do not too sharply re- 
 gard those men ! ' " 
 
 Perry threw back his head and laughed. 
 
 "Well, well! Now, now!" exclauned the 
 host, a whole-hearted Englishman. " It was 
 no mistake then putting the small lady and the 
 little man beside each other. What 's the good 
 joke ? Can't we all have it ? " 
 
 But Judy looked so demure, while Perry 
 could not sober down at once, that the Scotch- 
 man called out, 
 
 " Be a brave bit o 'a mon now, and let us a' 
 be laughing." 
 
 "It was something she said," Perry man- 
 aged to reply, " that made me laugh." 
 
 " And it would n't be funny to tell anybody 
 but just a boy," said ready Judy. 
 
 "Ah, weel, then we'll hae to do wi'out it," 
 said the kindly Scotsman, and so no one else 
 heard what Judy had said. 
 
 After the long meal the gentlemen returned 
 to the veranda taking their cigars. The won- 
 derful light cast all along the sea and the shore 
 
20 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIBL IN INDIA. 
 
 was at the brilliant stage when a flush of pink 
 glory enwrapped every object. 
 
 All along the water front came vehicles of 
 every kind and description more numerous if 
 anything than those seen an hour and a half 
 before on Malabar Hill. 
 
 Just then Judy spied Cid and Jon perched 
 on high, and coming slowly along. 
 
 " Oh, papa," she said, crossing over to where 
 her father sat talking, " may Perry and I go 
 to ride if you don't want to go home yet? " 
 
 " Yes, Judy, if Perry would like to and his 
 papa is wilhng, but I want to introduce my 
 little daughter to Perry's father. This is Mr. 
 "Wakefield from America, — Miss Judith Hicks, 
 Mr. Wakefield, — and when we drive home in 
 about an hour, both this gentleman and his lit- 
 tle son win go with us. You will like that, 
 won't you?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, I wiU ! I mU ! " and Judy spoke 
 so heartily that Mr. Wakefield smiled and said 
 she must mean that they would be very wel- 
 come. 
 
 "And papa," the httle girl continued eager- 
 
AT THE TABLE. 21 
 
 ly, " can't Perry take care of me without Mee- 
 jee's coming too all the time ? Papa, can't he ? 
 He may, mayn't he, papa? You will let him, 
 won't you, papa? " 
 
 Both gentlemen smiled at the teasing and 
 entreaty of poor Judy's voice, but Mr. Hicks 
 only said, " There will be time enough to see 
 about that by and by, my httle dear. Run 
 along now, and stop Cid." 
 
 Off darted Judy. " Papa says we may go 
 riding in the carriage if we want to," she said 
 to the quieter, but no less joyous Perry. " So, 
 come, you would like to, wouldn't you? " 
 
 " Of course I would ! " cried Perry starting 
 up. 
 
 Judy made a quick motion to Cid. The fine 
 equipage swept up to the veranda. Jon jimiped 
 hghtly down and opened the door of the ba- 
 rouche, and presently Judy and Perry were in 
 the midst of a driving throng. 
 
CHAPTER in. 
 
 AT THE FORT. 
 
 " "VTOW, you see, I can explain most any- 
 X\ thing you want me to," observed Miss 
 Judy, as the carriage drove slowly along. She 
 really did not mean to seem important, this 
 chatty httle maid, born in India, but being 
 the child of loyal American parents. This 
 means that her parents had loved America, 
 the land of their birth, best of all countries in 
 the world, although their home had also been 
 in India. And you should have seen how this 
 small Judy would toss up her little head and 
 declare herself an American if any one hinted 
 at her being a little India maiden. 
 
 " You know," she went on now, " we're 
 American way through, papa and I, but I've 
 lived here so long, of course I can't help know- 
 
AT THE FORT. 23 
 
 ing about things round Bombay. Oh, do see 
 that old Begum ! " 
 
 " That old what ? " And Perry eyed cu- 
 riously an enormous woman with a dark skin 
 and strange dress, who lounged back in a vel- 
 vet cushioned victoria, the coachman and foot- 
 man wearing enormous tiu-bans on their heads 
 of gleaming white muslin, and being otherwise 
 liveried in white jackets, short white trousers, 
 their knees being bare, but their waists girdled 
 with showy sashes of green and gold; the 
 sandals on their feet were also of green and 
 gold. 
 
 " I call that big woman a Begum," said Judy, 
 " because that is what Meejee and everyone 
 here calls a real Indian woman that is high 
 caste, and has a great deal of money. Her 
 carriage is a little ahead of ours so we can 
 watch all we want to without her seeing us 
 and thinking we're staring. Papa says it is 
 ex-cee-dingly improper to stare." 
 
 Judy could usually find plenty of words both 
 large and small to use when she had anyone 
 to listen, so now she talked on. 
 
24 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 " That woman really is a Begum, because 
 she is of high rank as we call it. She belongs 
 to some of the uppish families" — Judy meant 
 the upper or higher families — " see the dia- 
 monds and bright things made of gold aU over 
 her." 
 
 Perry gave a little laugh, but the next mo- 
 ment Judy touched him slyly and said in a low 
 voice, 
 
 " Take a good long look at this lady in the 
 landau close by us. She is another lady of 
 rank, and see, isn't she pretty? She has put 
 up her veil to have a look at something. A 
 great many ladies of India are not pretty at aU." 
 
 Perry looked with great interest into a deep 
 open carriage, the top thrown back, but with 
 sides so deep, he could not have seen in it very 
 well had they not been so near. 
 
 "Now that dress she has on," explained 
 Judy, " is nothing but drapery. It is only one 
 long piece of India muslin, that her maid winds 
 and winds about her, with a tuck here, and a 
 place caught up there, and every little while a 
 set of folds fastened so you can't see the pins, 
 
AT THE FOET. 25 
 
 and it is called the Greek style. The maids 
 know how to drape gauze or fine muslin, so 
 that the gold fringe round the edge shall come 
 right at the feet. Pretty, isn't it? " 
 
 " I think it is ex-cee-dingly pretty," Perry 
 replied smilingly, and good-natured Judy 
 laughed merrily, knowing that Perry was 
 using her own large word. 
 
 " Yes," Perry went on more soberly, " I think 
 that kind of dress matches that kind of lady. 
 But how tired she looks, the same as the Be- 
 gum did, and what makes her so careful to 
 cover her face ? " 
 
 " Oh because, she's awfully high caste ! and 
 the native ladies nearly all cover their faces 
 in the street, though they don't as much as 
 they used to. And they all have that way of 
 half shutting their eyes. Papa says it goes 
 with the climate." 
 
 "Your eyes aren't half shut," and Perry 
 looked at the wide-open violet ejes beside him. 
 
 " I 'm not a Begum ! " cried Judy, as her 
 little nose went up disdainfully, "nor high 
 caste, nor Hindu, nor India girl ! I only hap- 
 
26 A LITTLE AMEEICAK GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 pened to be bom in India. Don't you remem- 
 ber, I said that papa was American and I'm 
 American too, the same as papa is." 
 
 " Yes, but when I want to plague you," said 
 Perry, with a roguish twinkle in his own bright 
 eye, " I can call you, ' little Miss Begima.' " 
 
 " All right, and I'll call you ' little Mister 
 British.' " 
 
 " Oh, but I was born in America," quickly 
 prompted Perry. " Don't you remember I said 
 papa and mamma and I were only visiting in 
 England ? " 
 
 Poor Judy looked cornered. If there was 
 anything she wished with aU her Httle heart 
 and soul, it was that she could say she had 
 begun her httle life in beloved America. The 
 tears came into her eyes. 
 
 " There now, Perry, I would n't have said 
 that to you ; " and so mournful was her voice 
 while her eyes drew down in the way peculiar 
 to herself, that Perry rephed right manfully, 
 
 " Oh come, Judy, 'twas n't fair for me to say 
 that anyway, but I was only in fun. And 
 you're a mighty pretty Httle girl, Judy, ever 
 
AT THE FOET. 27 
 
 SO much prettier than you would be with your 
 eyes half shut up, and of course you belong to 
 America, long as your parents did." 
 
 But Perry had touched a very tender spot. 
 It really was strange that any mere child 
 should be so unwilling to own the land of her 
 birth. But if Judy was her papa's pet and 
 plaything, the dear papa was almost an idol to 
 Judy's queer, loving httle heart, and the poor, 
 pretty mamma she had often been told of, and 
 whose picture painted on ivory stood on papa's 
 bureau, was like a pleasant dream in Judy's 
 mind. And to feel that she was not actually 
 a native of the same country and soil with her 
 parents was a very grievous thing to the little 
 girl. 
 
 But the truth was, Meejee, her ayah or nurse, 
 had a very ill-natured friend who once when 
 Judy was chattering about a little Indian boy, 
 said bluntly, 
 
 " Ho ! you's Indian yo sef, Miss Judy ! Ev'ry- 
 one know that ! " 
 
 " I 'm not ! " screamed Judy, bringing down 
 her little foot with an angry stamp. "I'm 
 not! I '11 tell my papa!" 
 
28 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " Tell 'im," teased the girl, " and see what he 
 say." 
 
 " Am I Indian, papa ? " Judy asked that 
 night, her eyes way down and full of childish 
 anxiety. 
 
 "Well, why not, my httle Judy-Ju?" her 
 father had replied laughingly, and gayly catch- 
 ing her up in his arms. " Why should n't you 
 go for a httle India maid when you were born 
 right here in Bombay ? " 
 
 To his surprise the child burst into a terrible 
 fit of cr3dng. 
 
 "Why, why! What's this?" asked Mr. 
 Hicks never dreaming what the poor little 
 thing had suffered at the teasuig words of 
 Panpan, Meejee's native friend. 
 
 " Oh-I-want-to belong to America, same as 
 you and mamma," sobbed Judy. "I worCth^ 
 a little India maid, I won't ! I won't ! " 
 
 Then her papa thought he understood the 
 whole trouble, and explained so kindly that 
 she would be considered an American although 
 she was bom in India that Judy was comforted, 
 yet the tender spot had never quite healed, 
 
AT THE FOET. 29 
 
 and now to have " a truly American boy " as 
 she called Perry in her heart, remind her again 
 that she belonged to India, quieted poor little 
 Judy in a way to make Perry very sorry, al- 
 though he had said nothing really wrong. 
 
 The slow fading of the rosy light was bring- 
 ing on the evening which falls almost imper- 
 ceptibly in India, yet Judy knew that before 
 long things would begin to appear hazy and 
 indistinct. 
 
 A few of the dark-eyed women raised their 
 veils. " Those women are not so very pretty 
 when you reaUy see their faces," Perry re- 
 marked ; " their eyes are fine, but I don't see 
 the sense in their , wearing those veils. I 
 should n't think they'd like it, especially in this 
 hot climate." 
 
 " It's the fashion with the high castes," Judy 
 repUed, " but a good many of them belong to 
 the Zenanas." 
 
 "What's that for pity's sake?" 
 
 " Papa says a whole company of women are 
 kept by themselves, and not allowed to go 
 about or to see other women, or to do any- 
 
30 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 thing except what the master of the house 
 says they may, and they must worship just 
 what he says, too." 
 
 " Ho ! I should think they were pretty good 
 slaves ! " 
 
 " Yes, so should I, Perry. But papa says 
 the Zenanas are all passing away. The women 
 used to believe the Hindu religion, and had 
 no chance of knowing about any other until 
 so many missionaries came from England and 
 America, and in some way taught them of our 
 religion, and now a great many women who 
 used to belong to the Zenanas go where they 
 like and believe what they think is right." 
 
 Cid was turning the horses toward the far 
 end of the Fort and the handsome bungalow. 
 Perry was troubled that his gay little compan- 
 ion had become so subdued and unlike the 
 happy child that had invited him to drive. 
 All at once he took up Judy's soft little hand. 
 
 "I say, Judy," he half whispered, "let's 
 make a vow. Let 's vow to standby each other, 
 to be friends through thick and thin, never to 
 say plaguing things to each other, and to just 
 
AT THE FORT. 31 
 
 be jolly friends just as all American boys and 
 girls ought to be." 
 
 That last sentence full of honey and bahn 
 for poor hurt little Judy broke the dark spell 
 that had been about her, and jumping up she 
 clapped her hands, exclaiming, 
 
 " Oh yes, we will ! "We wiU ! We '11 be the 
 best American friends you ever saw in your 
 life. Perry Wakefield ! " 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 KUNNING AWAY. 
 
 EVERYTHING seemed to be beautifuUy ar- 
 ranged the next morning. Mr. Wakefield 
 and Perry were settled at the ViUa Welcome, 
 and Judy had been told that as the gentlemen 
 would probably be away each day until dinner 
 time, either on business or pleasure trips, she 
 must be a Httle lady, study and practice faith- 
 fully, obey Meejee in certain things, and also 
 make it as pleasant as possible for Perry. 
 
 But Judy had a very particular request of her 
 own to make. So she managed to see her papa 
 a moment in his own room. She kissed him 
 on both cheeks to begin with to let him under- 
 stand there was a promise to be made, as her 
 father had once laughingly told her a pair of 
 kisses meant. But she told him in the first 
 
RUNNING AWAY. 33 
 
 place that slie was going to be his own good 
 little girl, just as good as she could be. 
 
 " But I want you to make me one promise, 
 papa," she said, with some anxiety in the vio- 
 let eyes, that her father thought the dearest, 
 prettiest eyes in all the world. 
 
 "And then," she added, "you can kiss me 
 on both cheeks to show that you've really 
 promised." 
 
 Mr. Hicks' eyes were full of laughter. 
 
 " You need n't laugh, my own papa, but 
 please, please," — very coaxingly, — " after 
 I've done my lessons, may n't Perry and I take 
 walks by ourselves afternoons ? Perry'U take 
 care of me." 
 
 " You can go about the place by yourselves 
 with one of the servants within call," rephed 
 Mr. Hicks decidedly, " but nowhere ofE of the 
 grounds. That would never do." 
 
 "Well, but papa," — Judy put her hands 
 lovingly on his cheeks, " p-1-e-a-s-e, mayn't 
 good old Yampa go with us when we walk or 
 ride off the grounds? Meejee is such a trial, 
 papa ? Sometimes she gets Panpan, her old 
 
34 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 friend, to go out with her when she has me to 
 walk with, and I can't have a bit of fun." 
 
 " But Meejee is always kind to you, Judy, 
 and has been your ayah nearly aU your little 
 Ufe." 
 
 "Yes, I know that, papa, but with a boy for 
 company I think it would be ever so much 
 nicer to have Yampa with us. You know he 
 would n't let a fly hurt me, papa," — interrupt- 
 ing herself, " why did n't you tell me Perry 
 was coming ? " 
 
 "Because, darling, there was some doubt 
 about it, and I did n't want you to be disap- 
 pointed." 
 
 " Well, Yampa may go with us play-times, 
 may n't he ? " 
 
 Now Yampa was old and trustworthy. He 
 really was head-gardener, or overseer of the 
 whole establishment outside, stable, garden, 
 and the men who served in them, for a gen- 
 tleman in India expects to have a good many 
 more servants than his family numbers, espe- 
 cially if the family is a small one. 
 
 The native servants under Yampa knew 
 
RUNNING AWAY. 35 
 
 their place and their work and did not dare to 
 shirk. Of all the flowers that bloomed about 
 the Villa Welcome, Judy was the sweetest, the 
 most to be admired in old Yampa's eyes, and 
 if necessary the one to be most carefully 
 guarded. And many was the time that the 
 toddling child had been left to his care. 
 
 Would not Yampa let " leetle Missy " go 
 anywhere her ladyship wished where there was 
 not actual danger ? Certainly he would, and 
 Judy knew it. Would not Yampa, haK Chris- 
 tian, and half Hindu as he could not help be- 
 ing, get admission for little missy into places 
 she never could have entered with a woman 
 for attendant ? Of course he could and Judy 
 knew it. 
 
 Would not Yampa strain his conscience a 
 Httle to let " dear leetle missy and young mas- 
 ter her friend" enjoy certain strange but not 
 dangerous adventures ? Well — that might be 
 a question. But with her strong will joined 
 with a great desire to try these adventures the 
 young lady was not afraid to make certain re- 
 quests. 
 
36 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " What a little tease you are," said her papa, 
 holding back his head, for Judy was putting 
 her face near his in hopes to receive the pair 
 of kisses that would make sure the promise she 
 craved. The child sighed and down went her 
 eyes. " Oh, well, papa, if I must have Meejee 
 go with me afternoons, all is I'd rather not have 
 Perry nor any extra pleasures. Meejee would 
 go and spoil it all, and a boy doesn't want a 
 woman nurse tagging round, I know he does 
 n't. He was surprised that I did." 
 
 " Well, well, I think I shall have to let you 
 have Yampa," said the indulgent father, " but 
 you must be a good little scholar mornings, 
 and obey Yampa in the afternoon." 
 
 Judy hugged her papa until he declared his 
 coUar would be " nowhere," then she graciously 
 permitted him to kiss first one httle peachy 
 cheek then the other, and the promise was 
 made sure. 
 
 " Glo-ree ? Won't I have the fun though ! " 
 she almost screamed. 
 
 " See here. Miss Judy, I'm afraid I'd better 
 take back my promise after aU. What would 
 
RUNNING AWAY. 37 
 
 Mr. Perry think I wonder to hear such a squeal 
 as that ? " 
 
 " Oh, but I was so happy I forgot about be- 
 ing ladyfied," and going close to her father she 
 stooped over with her hands on her knees, and 
 exclaimed several times in a soft undertone : 
 "Winks! Winks! Q9b-ree ? G\o-ree? Now 
 only see how soft I can make my voice, papa 
 Hicks, Glo-ree ? " 
 
 The last word went higher with its rising 
 inflection, but Mr. Hicks had to laugh at the 
 merry child, and he felt glad he had given the 
 promise when he saw the real joy it had 
 brought. 
 
 As regularly as the sun rose, Madam Wish- 
 ton, an accomplished Enghsh governess, ap- 
 peared at the Villa Welcome every day except 
 Sunday, and from nine in the morning until 
 half-past twelve Judy " did her lessons." Then 
 she had luncheon with the governess, after 
 which there was an hour at the piano, madam 
 acting as teacher. By two o'clock the child 
 was free for the rest of the day. 
 
 Madam Wishton then returned to her aged 
 
38 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 mother with whom she was obliged to live. 
 Judy was a bright Httle scholar and seldom 
 gave her teacher any trouble. Ordinarily her 
 lessons were easily learned, but now it became 
 harder to fix her mind on her studies. But 
 she was so truly grateful at the prospect of es- 
 caping Meejee in the afternoon that she did 
 her very best in the morning, and madam had 
 no cause for complaint. 
 
 " Yampa ! Yampa ! " cried Judy, as she and 
 Perry raced across the velvet lawn, too hurried 
 to keep in the even walks all around it. 
 
 Yampa looked his usual admiration at the 
 pale, yet fresh little face, as he waited to hear 
 what Judy had to say. She lowered her voice, 
 not knowing where " that Meejee " might be. 
 
 " 0, Yampa, didn't papa say anything about 
 our having you to go out with us afternoons, 
 Perry and I ? " 
 
 " No, Missy, I hear no a word of such kind." 
 
 Yampa, like many native servants had lived 
 with so many EngUshmen during his long life, 
 that he spoke Enghsh plainly although twist- 
 ing his sentences often as might anyone who 
 
RUNNING AWAT. 39 
 
 gradually learns a strange hard language. He 
 was moreover a very intelligent man for one 
 of his race, not exactly educated, yet his mas- 
 ter had often been glad to seek information 
 from him, and very few were the questions re- 
 lating to his own country that Yampa could 
 not answer. Judy now went on, 
 
 " Well, Yampa, papa says you are to go with 
 Perry and me and take care of us play hours, 
 because Meejee couldn't let us see all we want 
 to. Now I want my pony carriage and you to 
 drive. How soon can you be ready ? " 
 
 " My clothes I change, Missy, in a jiffee. 
 The ponies shall be harness right away quick ! 
 I all ready be — " Yampa took out a great silver 
 watch and looked at it — " in twenty minute. 
 Dat not very long to wait." 
 
 " All right, Yampa, Oh, and please drive round 
 by the shrubbery. We will get in there, Perry 
 and I." 
 
 " That will I do. Missy." 
 
 Yampa hurried away and Perry began ask- 
 ing questions about some things that had set 
 him wondering a httle. 
 
40 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 "I thought Yampa looked pretty nice in what 
 he had on," he said, " what makes him change 
 his clothes ? " 
 
 " Oh, why papa would scold and scold him," 
 said Judy, " if he got into one of the carriages 
 without a livery on. He always has one, so 
 has Janlan, one of the grooms. Sometimes 
 more than one carriage goes out at a time when 
 we have company. You know they 're dret'fly 
 particular about all those things here. One of 
 papa's friends in Breach Candy sent off a splen- 
 did coachman, because he didn't dress properly 
 when he was only going to the station to bring 
 a valise home for his master." 
 
 Perry smiled. " Would the valise have 
 known the man wasn't in Hvery?" he asked. 
 
 "No," said bright Judy, "but his master 
 would. He was to have master with him go- 
 ing back and he knew it." 
 
 " Ho ! my papa would take his own vahse 
 and tramp off with it," said Perry, a touch of 
 scorn in his bojash voice. 
 
 Judy's eyes grew long and dreamy. " Yes," 
 and she sighed a httle, " I suppose people can 
 
EUKNING AWAY. 41 
 
 do a great many things in America, they 
 could n't in India, but — why Perry Wakefield, 
 if a man that is a gentleman should carry a 
 bundle here, they'd think, oh, I don't know 
 what ! They might think that he had turned 
 into a Hindu ! " 
 
 Perry laughed, then another question came 
 bubbhng up. 
 
 " I say, Judy, what made you teU Yampa to 
 go around by the shrubbery ? Any reason ? " 
 
 " Oh dear, yes," and Judy lowered her voice 
 again. "That was because about Meejee. 
 Here I am now in plain sight from the win- 
 dows where she looks out. The shrubbery is 
 on the other side, and when we get into the 
 pony carriage we must be as quick as we can 
 for Meejee mustn't see us, she must not!" 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Winks ! You would n't ask that if you 
 knew India ! " 
 
 "But your papa said you might go with 
 Yampa." 
 
 " Yes, so he did. Perry. But I asked Meejee 
 questions in a ve-ry quiet way, and found out 
 
42 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 that papa forgot to tell her what he had said. 
 So if she saw us starting, I might say every- 
 thing I could to my old ayah, but she would n't 
 let me get into the carriage without her. She 
 would scream out, 
 
 " It so im-proper be ! It so m-proper be ! 
 No, no, ma'seUe, until I myself be told, you 
 leave not the place without me. You pa-^a 
 would say, ' why trust the word of one little 
 chile ' ? " 
 
 " But would n't she believe you ? " 
 
 " I don't know," said Judy with a weary air. 
 "I never told Meejee a wrong story that I 
 know of, but if she found me going anywhere, 
 I could n't keep her at home. Nobody but 
 those who live in India know about the ser- 
 vants. Once, ever so many years ago, some 
 of the natives tried to kill aU the white people. 
 Ever since then the servants have to do exactly 
 as they are told, if they don't they lose their 
 places. Papa is kind as he can be to all our 
 servants, but if they don't mind all he says he 
 won't keep them. 
 
 " Once he sent off a man that I liked, and 
 
RUNNING AWAY. 43 
 
 when I asked what made hun, he said it was 
 because he could n't trust him. There ! I hear 
 the ponies, run now, quick, quick ! " 
 
 A pair of glossy ponies were harnessed to a 
 low, pretty carriage with two seats. In a mo- 
 ment. Perry and Judy had scrambled into the 
 back seat and started merrily off on their drive. 
 They wound along the smooth, even roads one 
 below the other, for the Villa Welcome was on 
 one of the highest terraces of beautiful Mala- 
 bar HiU. 
 
 Many and many a time Judy had planned 
 in her active httle mind where she would hke 
 to go if she only could, but they were places 
 where neither her papa nor Meejee would be 
 likely to take her. Soon after seating herself 
 beside Perry and leaving the grounds, she said, 
 her eyes bright and mischievous, 
 
 "Meejee says they would throw me out of 
 a Parsee temple if ever I went into one, but 
 they worship fire, one of our servants told me 
 so. Now I've made up my mind I will go and 
 see if they do." 
 
 So when Yampa, after reaching the foot of 
 
44 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 the hill, turned partly around and said respect- 
 fully, "Where now, Missy?" Judy replied 
 readily, 
 
 "If you please, Yampa, Perry would like 
 very much to go into one of the temples and 
 see the Fire-Worshippers, and so would I. 
 Perry has never seen them nor I either." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 " /^H now, Missy," exclaimed Yampa in 
 \^ surprise, " p'raps yo' papa would allow 
 it never dat you should enter dat place. They 
 would n't let yo' papa, the master, enter him- 
 self ; no, on no account, and two chil'ren ? I 
 doubt me." 
 
 " Oh, but Yampa, I want to go terribly," 
 insisted Judy, " and shall cry my eyes out if 
 I can't. They'll let you in, and papa said we 
 were to be in your care, you know." 
 
 Yampa looked troubled but Judy could not 
 see the wrinkled old face. If his master's child 
 was to go to places where he could take her, 
 he would willingly have carried her in on his 
 back if necessary. But two Christian children 
 to enter a Parsee temple, he reaUy doubted if 
 
46 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEl. IN INDIA. 
 
 it would be allowed. Yet the flattering re- 
 minder that the master's precious child and 
 her guest were in his care was not lost upon 
 him. 
 
 " What can be done Yampa wiU find out," 
 he said. 
 
 " Had n't we better go somewhere else to- 
 day ? " asked Perry. " We could n't drive the 
 ponies into the temple very well, and how 
 could Yampa go in with us unless we did ? " 
 
 But Perry had no idea of the strength of will 
 belonging to the little lady at his side, nor of 
 the resources of which she knew. 
 
 " Ho ! " she said with the utmost ease, " the 
 ponies won't make any difference. We're 
 going to a good many places, you and I, 
 where the carriage wiU have to wait outside. 
 There are crowds and crowds of coolies, or 
 Arabs, or small blacks, " — she meant little 
 negroes — "who would tend the ponies all 
 night for the silver bits we give them. I al- 
 ways have silver bits in my pocket ; sometimes 
 papa lets me throw them out of the carriage 
 to see the children scramble for them, but I'm 
 
m THE TEMPLE. 47 
 
 never allowed to give them to grown up beg- 
 gars." 
 
 It was getting toward the middle of the after- 
 noon as the children rode along, nearing the 
 center of the city, and Perry wondered at see- 
 ing so few people abroad. 
 
 " Oh, well," explained Judy, " Bombay's 
 queer. It is n't at aU hke America. The 
 people are busy there all day, are n't they ? " 
 
 " Yes, Americans are a very active people," 
 returned Perry, who could not help feeUng a 
 little grand at being able to instruct curious 
 little Judy and to talk in a knowing way about 
 America and her people. 
 
 "Now, here," Judy went on "it is pretty 
 quiet in the morning until about ten o'clock, 
 then the bazaars all open and shopkeepers and 
 oh, everyone are flying around, and you'd think 
 there never were more ' active ' people aKve. 
 But about four in the afternoon everyone 
 creeps into a shell. I think the ladies lie down 
 and sleep ; it is hot, very hot, you know, and 
 the men lounge around and give orders, and 
 everything is quiet as can be tiU dinner time. 
 
48 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 " But after dinner, — well, you saw how it 
 was last night, and it is that way every night; 
 but my ! is n't it gay on the Esplanade ! We'U 
 drive there with papa to-night, perhaps, and 
 see the crowds of people and carriages and car- 
 riages ! " 
 
 " I don't beheve you ever saw more than 
 there are there every pleasant night." 
 
 The ponies had turned toward the old river 
 front known as the Fort, and Judy quick to 
 imagine whither they were bound, interrupted 
 her description of Bombay and the customs of 
 the people to exclaim, 
 
 " 0, Yampa, can't we go to that pretty new 
 temple over by the Vesta Road ? " 
 
 There were some things, however, that the 
 old servant knew much more about than did 
 the eager little Judy, and now he said with a 
 decided shake of his bushy gray head, 
 
 " No, no ! Dat temple is no for Christyeens." 
 
 He could not learn to say "Christians" as 
 we do, but rolled the "r" and made the last 
 syllable long with " e's." 
 
 " But I'd rather go to the new temple," per- 
 
IN THE TEMPLE. 49 
 
 sisted Judy, "the old one is such a gloomy 
 place." 
 
 Yampa drew in a firm line and the ponies 
 stopped. 
 
 "Will I take leetle Missy to de ole temple, 
 or will we go home ? " he asked. " I no take 
 my master's leetle girl where I know she not 
 be let to go." 
 
 With all his fondness for Judy and willing- 
 ness to serve her, the old gardener was not 
 going to try an impossible thing, and Judy was 
 not to be left in doubt any longer as to Yampa's 
 stretching his conscience to please her when it 
 came to that. 
 
 And as there is always something noble and 
 to be admired in not being willing to try im- 
 possible or improper things, Judy felt how 
 foolish and useless it would be to set her strong 
 little will against Yampa's faithfulness and 
 common sense. And what -is more she re- 
 spected him for it without exactly knowing it. 
 
 " Very well," she said, a little murmur in 
 her voice, " please then try to get us in the 
 old one." 
 4 
 
50 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 They trotted on quite a little distance further 
 before the ponies drew up before a dark, for- 
 bidding looking building. 
 
 There was nothing pretty or pleasing about 
 the outside of this Parsee temple, but Judy, 
 who had long wished to see the inside of one of 
 them was not the least grain shaky or timid 
 at thoughts of entering the imknown place. 
 
 Yampa jabbered in a strange tongue to a haK 
 naked boy who ran up as the little carriage 
 stopped, and Perry felt sure the ponies would 
 be well cared for while they were inside. The 
 boy's heart went pit-a-pat a httle faster than 
 usual, for the weird sights at hand seemed much 
 more strange and mysterious to him than they 
 did to Judy. 
 
 A man in white clothing stopped them at the 
 dull entrance. But Yampa spoke with him in 
 whispers a moment or two, then beckoned the 
 children to follow. 
 
 Perry looked at Judy to see if she felt quite 
 safe, but as that young lady squeezed her whole 
 face into a grimace that said as plainly as words 
 could have said, "Isn't it joUy we're here?" 
 
IN THE TEMPLE. 51 
 
 Perry made a sKght sound of amusement at 
 which Yampa very quickly held up a warning 
 finger. 
 
 Then he turned and whispered something to 
 Judy, after which he began fumbling at his 
 sandals. 
 
 "We've got to take off our shoosies," Judy 
 whispered in turn to Perry, and she came so 
 dangerously near giggling as she began unty- 
 ing her pretty little shoes that she sobered her- 
 self to whisper again, 
 
 "Yampa says if we make a sound they'U 
 order us to march out quicker 'n we marched 
 in." 
 
 Perry understood he could not pass the inner 
 door of the temple without taking off his shoes 
 and so went about unfastening the buttons as 
 silently as possible. 
 
 Both children were having all they could do 
 to keep from bubbling into a laugh that would 
 indeed have driven them out at once. Yet at 
 heart. Perry felt a kind of awe, not feeling as 
 much at home as Judy did in the midst of the 
 foreign surroundings. 
 
52 A LITTLE AMEPJCAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 Once fairly in the temple however, the chil- 
 dren sobered as they tried to take in the curi- 
 ous scene before and around them. The place 
 although hghted by fire had in it so different 
 a Ught from the burning sun-glare outside, that 
 it took a few moments to see clearly in the wide, 
 dim space. 
 
 The great hall in which they stood was held 
 up as it seemed by large, strong pillars or posts, 
 and in the center up above, was a dome which 
 had outlets or holes for the escape of the smoke. 
 Under this dome was what was called the grand 
 altar, and on the altar was a great brass brazier, 
 a kind of bowl or pan, in which was burning 
 the sacred fire. 
 
 A sweet, sweet smeU was all through the 
 place, the air was heavy with it. Several 
 priests stood about the altar, all dressed in 
 pure white, their long, loose robes floating 
 about them, giving to them the appearance of 
 great solemn white spirits as they moved 
 slowly to and fro. 
 
 Here and there throughout the temple were 
 worshippers on their knees, praying toward 
 
IN THE TEMPLE. 53 
 
 the fire. Others stood with arms outstretched 
 toward the sacred flame offering their strange 
 prayers in low tones. 
 
 Pieces of wood were put into the brazier 
 every few moments by the priests, and per- 
 fumes were also poured in, giving forth the 
 most exquisite scent. Then at intervals the 
 priests would take slowly from the burning 
 mass a bit of the wood, and hand it to some 
 faithful worshipper, who would receive it in a 
 small brass vessel with a handle, and go quickly 
 with it from the temple. 
 
 By this time, Judy had kept sober quite as 
 long if not a little longer than she felt equal 
 to. She began making droU signs to Perry, 
 as if she was n't going to have any bits of 
 burning wood passed her way. She held out 
 her hands a little way then slyly blew the 
 pink pahns, and quietly wrung them as if 
 nursing a burn. 
 
 From one pantomime to another — which 
 means talking by signs or motions — went 
 Judy, until poor Perry was on the point of 
 laughing aloud; it seemed as if he could not 
 
54 A LITTLE AMEKICAIir GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 prevent it. Just then Yampa, who had been 
 all interested in the service happened to catch 
 Judy in the midst of her queer exercises, and 
 knowing they had seen and heard all there 
 was to see and hear, motioned to them that 
 it was time to go. 
 
 In a moment they were all three dressing 
 their feet again, and the visit to the temple 
 was ended. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TAMPA EXPLAINS. 
 
 AS the carriage turned in the direction of 
 home, Perry, whose eyes were constantly 
 stretched wide at the strange sights and the 
 curious people before him, kept asking aU 
 kinds of questions. 
 
 On leaving the temple, Judy had said to him, 
 " By and by, after we 're dressed for dinner, 
 I 'U get Yampa to teU us all about that funny 
 performance or whatever it was, and why they 
 passed around bits of wood a-fire as if 'twas a 
 treat." 
 
 Then they rolled along and Perry forgot to 
 talk at aU, so great was his interest in all he 
 saw. But as they went up Malabar HiU the 
 first time, the Httle foreigner had approached 
 it in broad daylight, and as the roads wound 
 
56 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IIT INDIA. 
 
 higher and higher until the Villa Welcome was 
 in sight, he suddenly exclaimed, 
 
 " Oh, how beautiful ! How beautiful ! Why, 
 Judy, I should think it would seem like Heaven 
 to Hve in a place Uke this ! " 
 
 " Is it finer than what they have in America ? " 
 Judy asked, and speaking softly as she always 
 did of the fair country of her dreams so far 
 away. 
 
 " It is altogether different," Perry replied. 
 "There's an air here of a summer time that 
 lasts forever and ever, and of a larger, brighter 
 sun than we have in America. And people 
 dress more Kke pictures, and the houses are 
 more like pictures too, now just look there ! " 
 
 They were on a high terrace, the villa di- 
 rectly before them. It was built partly in 
 bungalow style, having a wide front, a good 
 many rooms on the ground floor, and having 
 a high second story. All around the house 
 ran a veranda which was so wide at the front 
 as to have almost the appearance of a great 
 outside haU. 
 
 Looking off at a little distance toward the 
 
TAMPA EXPLAINS. 57 
 
 east were great overhanging rocks, massive 
 and grand, that seemed as if all ready to fall 
 on the passers-by. The bright sunlight made 
 the mossy peaks look as if aUve with most 
 beautiful tints and colors, while the sky all 
 around and the very air seemed rejoicing in a 
 shimmer of white, glorious light. 
 
 Great columns covered with gHstening 
 creepers of green supported the veranda, giv- 
 ing both villa and porticos a look of deUcious 
 coolness. On the sides of the lawn before the 
 house, were figures in marble, some holding 
 Clips or chalices, out of which drooped delicate 
 vines or hung long-stemmed flowers. 
 
 Here and there, sunk low in the fresh green 
 grass was a deep marble basin out of which 
 leaped the rainbow -tinted spray of a pretty 
 fountain, the water falling over great carved 
 roses and hUes bordering the white basins. 
 
 A wide flight of broad, shallow marble steps 
 easily mounted leading to the veranda were 
 bordered at the base, also midway up on either 
 side by high bronze, urns filled with rich, trop- 
 ical flowers. On either end of the very wide 
 
58 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 step at the top of the flight was the huge figure 
 of a lion in bronze, the great paws extended 
 in front, the heads erect as if guarding with 
 pride the fine mansion at their backs. 
 
 On the veranda were a variety of seats, bam- 
 boo chairs, some with rockers, some long-seated 
 arm-chairs, while back nearer the house were 
 smnptuous couches in bamboo on which one 
 could stretch himself full length at ease and 
 doze away the sunny hours, lulled by the gentle 
 plash and music of the fountains just below. 
 
 Sweet scented pillows, head-rests and iooir 
 rests were not wanting on the shaded veranda. 
 Large tubs painted green and filled with dark, 
 rich earth held dwarfed palms, umbrella pahns, 
 sweet-leaved bushes and rubber trees. These 
 were placed at the far corners ; and by the 
 porticos, light looking iron tables also painted 
 green held heavy vases from which trailed 
 hght, gracefully hanging vines along the bor- 
 ders, while the centers held radiant blooms. 
 
 Awnings of striped cotton stuff were part 
 way down giving refreshing shade to the quiet 
 spot. Glossy leaved trees with far-reaching 
 
TAMPA EXPLAINS. 59 
 
 branches framed around the extensive garden 
 at the back of the house, giving a grand per- 
 spective to the faultless grounds. 
 
 No wonder that the boy from the colder 
 western clime looked with delight at what to 
 his eyes was indeed a marvelously beautiful 
 picture. And as if to complete the eastern air 
 of it all, as they drove around to the steps, 
 there stood Meejee in all the haK-barbaric splen- 
 dor of her afternoon dress. A high turban of 
 red and white mushn rose in even folds above 
 her head. In her ears were great silver hoops 
 with fine figures in the hoops called " filagree 
 work." On her bare arms were silver bangles 
 and also armlets, which are bracelets of a 
 heavier kind than the bangles. 
 
 Her dress of light muslin hung full from the 
 waist and reached barely to the ankles. Her 
 stockings were white and her low shppers were 
 laced up nearly to the knee. The fuU mushn 
 waist was fastened at the neck with a great 
 silver breast-pin with several pendants hang- 
 ing in showey style. 
 
 She rolled her eyes and threw up her hands 
 
60 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 with a tragic look meant to show both fear and 
 reproach as Judy jumped from the little car- 
 riage. 
 
 " Ah, Miss Judy ! Ah, Ma'selle," she began, 
 " what will the master, you pa^a be sayin', 
 when ac-quaint him I do with this your so 
 naughty behaveeor? Ah, 'tis trexa-hleeng I 
 have been ever since I find you gone ! " 
 
 "Well, you needn't tremble another bit," 
 said Judy blithely, " for I have n't done a thing 
 naughty. Papa said I might go with Perry in 
 Yampa's care and have a drive afternoons." 
 
 " Did you pa^a indeed say that, Miss Judy? " 
 
 Poor Meejee drew herself up with a jealous, 
 angry look not pleasant to see. Very proud 
 she had been of acting so long as Judy's guar- 
 dian, and the thought had not entered her mind 
 that her master might have given his Uttle 
 girl permission to go anywhere in the care of 
 another person. If what Judy said was true, 
 it was a brand new idea to her and something 
 she meant to prevent in the future. 
 
 " Yes, he did," declared Judy, and then not 
 wishing to make Meejee too angry for fear of 
 
YAMPA EXPLAINS. 61 
 
 what she might possibly say to influence her 
 papa, she added, " You know an American boy 
 might not want a woman ayah following around 
 after him everywhere, and papa knew Yampa 
 would take splendid care of us." 
 
 This speech did not improve things. 
 
 " Then 'tis to yo' pa-^^a I shall go, and say 
 what I think of yo' goin' about with Yampa 
 and one boy," said Meejee passionately ; and 
 the bangles tinkled and the high turban bobbed 
 with the strength of her displeasure, as she 
 walked away. 
 
 Judy turned to Perry. " Now I must go 
 and be dressed for dinner," she said. "If 
 you 'd like to go on the veranda I '11 be down 
 pretty soon, then we '11 go and find Yampa, and 
 get him to tell us all about the priests and the 
 fire in the temple. And there 's something else 
 I want to see Yampa about too." 
 
 "I thought you looked nice in that dress," 
 said Perry, eyeing the cool seersucker of pale 
 buff Judy had on. 
 
 " Oh, but papa expects me to have my hair 
 all smooth when I go to dinner, and a nice 
 
62 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 dress on and silk stockings. There's almost 
 always someone to dinner for company, and 
 he 'd blame Meejee like everything if I was n't 
 '' fine ' as our servants say, when he comes 
 home. But I 'U make Meejee hurry and hurry 
 so I can get down quick." 
 
 " P'r'aps she 's so angry she won't hurry," 
 said Perry, laughing. 
 
 " Oh, I 'U make her be quick if I have to 
 stick pins in her, or — oh, I '11 teU you ! I can 
 threaten to pull down her turban as I used to 
 when I was little, that would make her fly 
 round quicker'n anything else." 
 
 " But you would n't touch it, would you ? " 
 
 " No, course not, but I won't be gone long, 
 and another thing I mean Miss Meejee shall 
 find out is, that I can manage papa Hicks bet- 
 ter than she can, but, dear me, she is such a 
 trial ! " 
 
 Perry went laughing off to the veranda 
 amused at Judy's sober face as she again com- 
 plained of her nurse as the trial of her merry 
 little life. It was quite plain that Meejee, who 
 had never dared and perhaps never really 
 
TAMPA EXPLAINS. 63 
 
 wished to be unkind to the child, had not been 
 as gentle or thoughtful as she might have 
 been, and the time was coming when Judy- 
 was all ready to rebel. 
 
 On his way through the hall Perry met the 
 housekeeper, Mrs. Crinkle, a fine-looking 
 EngUsh woman, who, nicely dressed in India 
 sUk, was a very ladylike appearing person. 
 She smiled pleasantly and said, " Good day, 
 little master, there are fine books for young 
 people in the morning-room if you have a fancy 
 to read." 
 
 The "morning-room" woiild have answered 
 very well also for a reading-room, for it was 
 where Mr. Hicks and the gentlemen who might 
 be with him read the newspapers in the morn- 
 ing or wrote notes, as it was well-furnished 
 with more than one desk. Here also were one 
 or two small book-cases, perhaps an overflow 
 from the fine hbrary just across the hall. 
 
 But Perry thought that instead of reading 
 he would go to the veranda and watch the car- 
 riages winding along, quite few comparatively 
 at this hour, yet pleasant to see. 
 
64 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 It was not long before Judy made lier appear- 
 ance looking very much to Perry's eyes as he 
 would fancy a Uttle princess. Yet her dress 
 was simple enough, its lightness and airiness 
 being the chief charm. A fine India muslin, 
 short and full, an imder-skirt nearly as fine as 
 the outside one setting ofE its dainty flow ; a 
 sash of soft India silk fringed at the edges, 
 openwork silk stockings and shoes of Hght gray 
 kid making up the pretty attire. The mass of 
 copper-gold, loosely curling hair flowing about 
 the httle girl's shoulders, together with her 
 lovely violet eyes, gave her in very truth the 
 look of a breezy fairy. 
 
 " Glo-ree ? " she cried with the peculiar sound 
 that made of the last syllable a little gleesome 
 squeal. " Glo-ree f I've got out of Meejee's 
 hands and now let 's run for the garden and 
 Yampa." 
 
 Off they started, Judy capering about like a 
 young kitten. AU at once she stopped. 
 
 " I promised Meejee I 'd try and keep smooth 
 and nice, and I must," she said, " because I 
 want papa to see I mean to be very good and 
 
TAMPA EXPLAINS. 65 
 
 ladjrfied without having Meejee at my elbow 
 every moment. I've got something very par- 
 ticular I want of papa Hicks, and I must be 
 careful or I won't get it." 
 
 They walked quietly enough now along the 
 shaded paths and stopped under an immense 
 baobab. This is a tree really belonging to 
 Africa said to be the largest when in full growth 
 in the world. It seemed like a great green 
 tent with its thick, low, far-spreading branches. 
 A seat ran arotmd the great trimk, and Judy 
 invited Perry to sit down under the dark shade. 
 Then she clapped her hands. 
 
 Immediately a dark-skinned Hindu appeared, 
 a gay turban on his head, and otherwise clothed 
 in coarse white jacket and trousers. 
 
 " Janlan," ordered Judy civilly, " will you 
 please find Yampa, and say I want him ?" 
 
 " Yah, yah," returned the man bowing low 
 and starting of£ on a run. 
 
 Perry looked at Judy questioiiingly. " Are 
 you sure Yampa will want to come ? " he asked. 
 
 " What ! "When I send for hun ? " and Judy's 
 eyes opened wide with surprise. 
 5 
 
66 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 The boy laughed. " I've heard my mamma 
 say you abnost have to beg some of the servants 
 in America to do things," he repUed. " She 
 didn't mean exactly that, I know, but I 
 should n't want to try ordering them around 
 as people do here, very few of them would 
 stand it." 
 
 " Oh, it is different with us, very different ! " 
 and Judy tossed back her bronze hair with a 
 knowing air. " Our servants are never any- 
 thing but servants, and they dance with satis- 
 fiedness when they get a chance to serve in a 
 gentleman's family. There are loads and loads 
 of them always waiting for a place as house- 
 servants, and sometimes they have to wait a 
 long time before they can get what they want. 
 Perhaps it's because India is full of caste." 
 
 "Yes, we are freer and more independent 
 in all classes in America," Perry answered. 
 " There are less servants there, and men and 
 women wait upon themselves more. It seems 
 rather grand to have a waiter close at your 
 heels all the time, and yet, I don't know as I 
 should care for it after a while. The fact is, 
 
TAMPA EXPLAINS. 67 
 
 we are Republicans and don't have a Queen or 
 an Empress over us, and our way of choosing 
 our own rulers and governing ourselves largely 
 makes us more independent, don't you see ? " 
 
 Down went Judy's long eyes with a ponder- 
 ing expression, but only for a moment, as 
 Yampa was coming toward the large, dark 
 tree. She brightened up at once and ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 "Now, Yampa, please tell us about the 
 priests, and aU we saw at the temple, we 
 did n't understand much of it. Perry nor I." 
 
 Flat on the warm grass went Yampa, neatly 
 folding away his legs under him. Then with 
 arms crossed he began : 
 
 " Leetle master an' Missy see de worsheep 
 o'fire same as they see de worsheep o' de sun, 
 or de dog-star if they go down to de river some 
 nights. De fire aU a-same to Parsee as de 
 great God to de Chrystyeens. It make a Hindu 
 sober in de face like any worsheep do." 
 
 Judy understood that Yampa did not Hke 
 their laughing in the temple and Perry was 
 very " sober in de face " as the old Indian went 
 on, 
 
68 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 " De sweet smell o' de wood de priest burn, 
 an' de sweet oil make wot you call ' incense,' 
 and it go up day an' night. De smoke go troo 
 dat dome over de altar, some holes there are 
 for it to go troo. Never can de fire go out in 
 de temple. It not been out for hunduds o' 
 years, and never am it lef ' alone for one minute. 
 It a very holy thing, an' they offer prayers, 
 many prayers an' flowers to it. 
 
 " De priest he mus'n't even breath while he 
 put de wood or de oil on dat fire, cause de 
 bref of a man mus' not come a-nigh it. It a 
 great sign o' blessin if a man have a leetle piece 
 of de burning wood to carry home and light 
 his fire with, it bring peace an' goodness to 
 his home. Dat why de priest give leetle pieces 
 of it roun'. Wot a man b'leeves, he b'leeves, 
 an' a Hindu love his relijin jus' as a Chrystyeen 
 do his." 
 
 " Some night if papa's wiUing, Yampa, will 
 you take Perry an me to see the people worship 
 the dog-star?" asked Judy. "It must look 
 wild and awful. I Hke things that are wild and 
 awful, don't you. Perry ? " 
 
TAMPA EXPLAINS. 69 
 
 " "Well, that depends." The American boy 
 was constantly amused at Judy's queer out- 
 bursts and expressions. Nothing very awful 
 had ever come into her Httle sheltered life, he 
 felt sure. 
 
 In the distance Judy saw Meejee go to an 
 end of the veranda and clap her hands. Janlan 
 ran swiftly forward. Meejee gave some order 
 and Janlan ran next to the baobab tree. With 
 his hands crossed over his breast the man bowed 
 low, and said in broken speech, 
 
 " Ze ayah say a-masser come, — leetle Missy, 
 she go yon." 
 
CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 " GLO-EEE ? " 
 
 JUDY had been told, time and again to go 
 like a little lady to the veranda or the 
 house when sent for at dinner time. Guests 
 were more than likely to dine at the Villa 
 Welcome, and her father who was both ex- 
 tremely proud and fond of his beautiful little 
 girl, wanted her to impress strangers as hav- 
 ing been a properly trained child. 
 
 But it was hke a tonic — that means a bright 
 sparkhng drink — to Judy, having a companion 
 anjrw^here »ear her own age to run about and 
 talk with. Naturally, she was one of the Hveli- 
 est of children, but an English speaking child in 
 India must be very much alone, having but few 
 mates unless there happens to be several young 
 people in the family, or else Enghsh or Amer- 
 ican neighbors near by who have children. 
 
" GLO-EEE ? " 71 
 
 And it had been really hard for poor Judy, 
 for she had scarcely ever had a young friend 
 near who would be considered a suitable play- 
 mate for a choice httle maiden like herself. 
 Then the watchful Meejee, and her teasing 
 friend Panpan had sometimes kept the child's 
 joyous spirits down, in a way that they never 
 would have done, had her papa known it. 
 But affectionate Judy seldom complained. 
 
 Nor did she always stay " kept down." By 
 no means. There were times in plenty when 
 Judy would scamper to the banyan tree, and 
 perform a dance that would have shocked the 
 ayah nearly into fits had she been there to see. 
 She never was. Judy took good care of that. 
 
 A banyan is in some respects more remark- 
 able than a baobab tree. It is large and strong, 
 but the branches as they grow hang over until 
 they reach the ground where they take root 
 again. So there are spaces and arches and 
 almost groves of green limbs all aroimd the 
 great trunk of the wonderful tree which is a 
 native of India. 
 
 Judy, escaping from Meejee's eyes for a lit- 
 
72 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 tie while, would race like a squirrel in and out 
 between the loops and openings of the great 
 branches, trying to catch a swift monkey, a 
 pet kitten, or, as it often happened to her 
 special delight, a little half-clothed Indian who 
 would dodge and scramble, leap and spring 
 out of her reach, until perhaps his own little 
 bare toes would get caught in a branch just 
 taking root, when down he would go, and 
 Judy coming swiftly up would catch him by 
 the little bare arms and shake him until he 
 screamed with laughter. 
 
 A child of Judy's spirits must indulge them 
 very often, and had her papa realized how 
 much his little darhng was in need of hght, 
 sportive companions he surely by some means 
 would have had them for her. 
 
 Now, as Janlan summoned her to the ve- 
 randa, she walked properly enough a few 
 steps, then she cried, " You can't catch me. 
 Mister America, see if you can ! " and off she 
 darted. 
 
 But Perry did not run. " What's the ma1> 
 ter?" she asked. 
 
" GLO-REE ? " 73 
 
 "Meejee's looking," answered Perry, who 
 had spied the nurse standing on the rear ve- 
 randa. 
 
 Judy quieted down at once. But close to 
 the shelter of the wide front she cried again 
 more softly, 
 
 " Want to see me dance Jim Crow round 
 the corner?" 
 
 Perry would have reminded her again about 
 keeping "nice and smooth," but as she spoke 
 Judy flew up some side steps, > then twirled 
 along the side of the veranda, her feet twink- 
 ling, her arms held aloft, as she twisted and 
 turned in a kind of mad dance, until, on whisk- 
 ing around the corner to the front of the pi- 
 azza, she found herself rushing toward several 
 gentlemen who almost started up at the sud- 
 den whirl of white skirts, flowing hair, and 
 little fair, uplifted arms. 
 
 Mr. Hicks took in the situation at a glance. 
 
 " Gentlemen," he said quietly, his eyes 
 growing long with a coming smile, "I beg to 
 announce that this is not an Indian hurricane 
 that has startled you, it is simply my young 
 daughter making her appearance." 
 
74 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 But a tall, broad shouldered man had leaped 
 to his feet exclaiming in the jolhest tones : 
 " Hoots ! but 'tis mesel wud like a turrun wi' 
 the wimply lass ! Now then, me dear, ye've 
 seen me befo' th' day." 
 
 And Judy's stalwart friend of " the mess," 
 the heavy yet nimble Scotchman, began tak- 
 ing steps before her. 
 
 This was an invitation that Judy could not 
 resist for a moment. Not she. Especially in 
 the fly-away mood she was in then, and catch- 
 ing up a bit of her outer skirt between each 
 thumb and fore-finger with a dainty pinch, off 
 she went to right and left, Mr. MacKentric 
 keeping time with slower steps. 
 
 The Englishman who had entertained his 
 friends at the Fort was sitting in one of the 
 great bamboo arm-chairs, and now bent for- 
 ward whisthng a gay dance tune and tapping 
 one foot briskly to the time. 
 
 Bound and round flew Judy, her towering 
 partner in dignified pursuit, Mr. Wakefield and 
 two or three other gentlemen looking on with 
 low, interested laughter. 
 
" GLO-KEE ? " 75 
 
 The graceful, breezy little lady of the house 
 would fling out first one foot then the other, 
 would whizz around the tall man who still 
 danced merrily on, then Judy would face him, 
 advance, recede, chassfe, until tired of the heat- 
 ing exercise her partner suddenly swooped 
 down, seized her as he had once before, and 
 tossing her to his high shoulder waltzed over 
 to one of the restful lounges. 
 
 Here he seated her beside him and soon as 
 he could get his breath exclaimed, "My worrud! 
 but wot do ye think o' yesel' ? Ye ' ve raced 
 a' th' wind clane oot o' me ! " 
 
 Perry, rounding the corner of the veranda 
 an instant after Judy had whisked out of sight, 
 came upon the laughable scene of the little 
 maid flitting like a fairy hither and yon, a man 
 who looked a veritable giant seeming to sur- 
 round her as he matched her movements with 
 a surprisingly light foot considering his propor- 
 tions, and Mr. Harwich, the English gentleman, 
 whistling and tapping for music and time. 
 
 His father bowed pleasantly, making a mo- 
 tion for him to remain where he was imtil the 
 
76 A LITTLE AMEBIC AN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 flying reel should end. Then he came forward 
 bowing Hke a little gentleman to each of the 
 company. 
 
 In another moment Judy sprang to where 
 her father was sitting and nearly smothered 
 him with kisses and her clinging little arms. 
 
 " May I inquire where you learned to dance ? " 
 he asked, thinking it better to reserve his next 
 lesson, concerning a proper entrance before 
 company, until some time when he should have 
 the Httle maid alone. 
 
 "Oh, I've always known how," she repHed 
 with droll assurance, "but the Wimple boy 
 showed me some steps I have n't forgotten yet." 
 
 For a brief, happy three months an English 
 family had occupied a near villa on the hill, 
 and so once before Judy had enjoyed having a 
 boy playmate during their sojourn. This was 
 the " Wimple boy " who had showed Judy the 
 proper steps, and beside this, Mr. Hicks knew 
 that the natives who danced on every occasion 
 had taught his Httle daughter's eyes, ears and 
 feet as soon as she could step off by herself. 
 
 The low, sweet-toned dinner chimes sounded 
 
"GLO-EEE?" 77 
 
 the next moment, and Mr. Harwich bowing 
 low before Judy offered his arm, stooping over 
 to allow her to reach it, and Judy as if to the 
 manner born walked demurely beside him to 
 the dining-room, a long apartment opening on 
 to the veranda, and furnished with much East- 
 ern elegance. 
 
 Great punkahs — swaying fans — were slowly 
 cooling the atmosphere, pictures adorned the 
 waUs, stuffed birds on artificial branches seemed 
 ready to fly about, while squirrels, and various 
 kinds of game were perched on brackets and 
 carved arms. 
 
 Drapings of light, fihny silk softened the light 
 of the glass doors, and a couple of flashing mir- 
 rors reflected the various objects in the room. 
 
 After dinner, as the gentlemen were again 
 on the veranda enjoying their fragrant Hava- 
 nas, Mr. MacKentric said with a sly jerk of his 
 head toward Judy, 
 
 " An' wot will ye do when papa an' Meester 
 Harwich gang f eelanderin' awa' to th' big hills, 
 an' leave th' bit weans behin' them ? " 
 
 " My papa never leaves me alone over night," 
 
78 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 said Judy with a comfortable little air that sent 
 a quick throb of regret to her father's heart. 
 
 Perry turned quickly toward his father. " Are 
 you going to any hiUs, papa ? " he asked. 
 
 "Do you think you could spare me, my 
 boy?" 
 
 The weU-trained boy looked sober as he an- 
 swered quietly, " I — don't — know," then wait- 
 ed to hear more. 
 
 " Come now, puss," began Mr. Hicks, lightly 
 pulling a lock of Judy's bright curls, " suppose 
 papa wanted to go with Mr. Wakefield, Mr. Har- 
 wich, and a few other gentlemen for a trip to 
 the Himalayas, only to be gone a few weeks, 
 don't you think that with Mrs. Crinkle to look 
 after you, and Meejee and Madam and Bappo, 
 and all the rest, and best of all with Perry to 
 keep you company, you would consent to let 
 him?" 
 
 He had dreaded, this kind father, proposing 
 to his only little child going away from her 
 for the first time, and was glad the hearty 
 Scotchman had broached the subject in his 
 mirthful way. 
 
" GLO-REE ? " 79 
 
 Judy's immediate inward thought, however, 
 was, that if " papa Hicks " expected to go 
 away on any kind of a journey whatsoever 
 without taking her, she would nip all such ex- 
 pectation in the bud. 
 
 She pressed her hand on her heart in a very 
 funny way, although she never meant for an 
 instant to have it look funny, and closed her 
 eyes. " I should n't wonder but I 'm dying ! " 
 she said. 
 
 " Ah ! Yah, ha ! " roared Mr. MacKentric 
 in great amusement. " Look now, will ye, at 
 th' leetle feckless guse ! 'Tis deein' she is, 
 because her fayther wants to gang on a tramp 
 a wee whilie. Weel, weel ! I wadna thocht 
 she wud a-been so unco a weaklin'. I took 
 her fer a richt brave little lass, I did reely ! " 
 
 That pricked, and Judy opened her eyes. 
 
 They fell on Perry who was laughing to 
 himself. 
 
 That stung, and she at once sat upright. 
 And on the instant there popped into the mind 
 under the dull gold of Judy's head a possible 
 form of consolation if her beloved papa should 
 go away. 
 
80 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " Ye 're recooverin' noo, are n't ye ? " teased 
 Mr. MacKentric. " Faix ! an I kenned 'twor 
 foolin' ye wor. Wait till ye see the gude it '11 
 be doin' yer papa to hev a bonny tramp oop 
 th.' mountains ! Ye 'U be wantin' him to tak' 
 th' Veela Weelcoom oop tha' fo' gude an' 
 arl." 
 
 More talk followed making Judy feel sure 
 that a trip had been planned to the mountains 
 and that her father and Perry's father were to 
 be of the party. She slipped quietly from her 
 seat beside her father, making a motion for 
 Perry to follow. They took a turn around 
 the veranda and seated themselves on the 
 upper step of the side flight. 
 
 "Perry," began Judy, in a low, solemn 
 voice, " my papa's going away." 
 
 " So 's mine," said Perry, shortly. 
 
 " Then I know what I 'm going to do," con- 
 tinued Judy. 
 
 "Hang onto the wheel of the car?" asked 
 Perry. " 'Twouldn't do. You would fall off 
 and break your crown if you tried that." 
 
 " No, I shan't try following papa this time, 
 
" GLO-KEE ? " 81 
 
 but he will have to promise me some things if 
 he wants me to be good and not make a fuss," 
 — Judy brightened up like a flash — " and the 
 times you and I will have, — Glo-ree F " 
 
 The merry little cry was made stronger by 
 a quick slapping together of Judy's hands, 
 then she immediately grew sober again. 
 
 " Now what I mean to do, Perry, is to have 
 a very partic'lar tallc with papa, and an aw- 
 fully partic'lar talk with Yampa. Meejee 
 has n't had any chance to talk with papa yet, 
 but she's hanging round so to catch him as 
 soon as she can. I'm afraid no one is going 
 riding to-night because it has turned damp 
 and is pleasanter on the veranda. But I am 
 not going to bed until I've seen my own papa, 
 and perhaps I'd better see Yampa this very 
 minute." 
 
 Perry with his extra year and more, thought 
 Judy very smart to plan so quickly and clearly, 
 and he asked, 
 
 " Had n't I better go away while you see 
 Yampa?" 
 6 
 
82 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 " Oil no, Perry, I may want you to help me 
 say things." 
 
 She clapped her hands, but so softly that no 
 one seemed to hear. She clapped them gently 
 again. Bappo, the bvitler, peeped from one of 
 the glass doors of the dining-room. 
 
 " Bappo," said Judy, " please find Yampa 
 and tell him to come here, and please don't 
 let anyone but Yampa hear." 
 
 "Yes, yes. Missy, yes," and tray in hand 
 Bappo disappeared. 
 
 Very soon Yampa came. As usual he sank 
 to the ground, stowed away his hmbs, folded 
 his arms and Ustened. 
 
 Judy began in a low, impressive voice : 
 " Yampa, my papa's going away." 
 
 " Yes, Missy." 
 
 "And, Yampa, Perry's papa is going too." 
 
 " Yes, Missy." 
 
 " And Yampa, Perry and I want to be in 
 your care when we go anjnvhere out doors all 
 the time our papas are gone. We do, don't 
 we, Perry?" 
 
 Perry said, " Oh certainly," and Yampa again 
 said " Yes, Missy." 
 
"GLO-EEE?" 83 
 
 "And I won't let my papa go one step, 
 Yampa, unless you' 11 promise to take care of 
 us, and papa '11 cry his eyes out if I won't let 
 him go, and Perry's papa will too." 
 
 Perry would surely have laughed out loud 
 if he had n't been too afraid of Judy. 
 
 " Now Yampa, that Meejee is goin' to beg 
 hard not to have anyone go about with us but 
 just herself, and I want you to let papa know 
 you'd admire to go round with us yourself; 
 you would, wouldn't you, Yampa?" 
 
 " Yas, yas ! I like much takin' a-care o' 
 leetle Missy an' young master, but Yampa no 
 speak to de master first 'bout anytings; it 
 not allow." 
 
 " Yes, but I'm going to talk to papa, and 
 he 'U ask what you think per'aps," explained 
 Judy, " then please Yampa, let him see how 
 wiUing you are to look after us, because of 
 course a boy like Perry doesn't want a ayah 
 round all the time, and I'm old enough to have 
 a groom same as those EngHsh girls have over 
 at the Fort." 
 
 " Yampa unnerstand. He say all he can to 
 
84 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 please leetle Missy; he tell master better let 
 him be groom while he go away." 
 
 Meejee called Judy to go to bed long before 
 the gentlemen got through talking, but Judy 
 was determined to have that private word with 
 her " own papa," first. 
 
 She knew very well her father would not 
 wish to be called away from his friends, but 
 as Meejee insisted her bed hour was "long 
 passed," she managed on kissing him good-night 
 to whisper, 
 
 "Papa, your little girl that you're going to 
 leave all alone, wants to see you a moment 
 dret'fly." 
 
 Mr. Hicks went as far as to the door quite 
 out of the hearing of the other gentlemen and 
 said caressingly : 
 
 " Well then, little one, what is it, papa is all 
 attention." He was afraid she was grieving 
 about his going away, and she really was, yet 
 she let him know there was one thing that 
 might console her and win her consent to let 
 him go, and that would be to have Yampa, not 
 Meejee, have the chief care of her out of 
 
" GLO-EEE ? " 85 
 
 school hours and especially to go with them 
 on their afternoon and evening drives. 
 
 And wanting to get back to his guests, and 
 thinking the request perhaps a reasonable one, 
 considering Perry was to be her companion, he 
 said, 
 
 " Very well, little darling, Yampa shall go 
 with you and Perry, as special servant and 
 guard if you wish it so much, only you must 
 promise to obey him, for I put great faith in 
 Yampa." 
 
 Then his face was seized, the two kisses given 
 and received that sealed the compact, and as 
 Judy bade Perry good-night she exclaimed 
 cautiously, but with a world of victory in her 
 voice, " Glo-ree f " 
 
CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 ON THE ESPLANADE. 
 
 AS the "mountain party" consisting of sev- 
 eral gentlemen beside Mr. Hicks, Mr. 
 Wakefield and Mr. Harwich was to start very 
 soon, there was not much time for giving di- 
 rections or advice. On account of business 
 matters which prevented, Mr. MacKentric was 
 not to accompany his friends. 
 
 Meejee said all she dared, and almost more 
 than she dared, to make Mr. Hicks see that it 
 was going to be a dreadful mistake to allow 
 any one to look after Judy during his absence 
 except herself. She wrung her hands in East- 
 ern fashion, and even wept, so great was her 
 distress at thought of giving up the rule she 
 had held so long. 
 
 But Mr. Hicks who had Judy's happiness 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 87 
 
 and welfare more closely at heart than almost 
 any other consideration, had made a promise 
 he meant to keep. He questioned Mrs. Crin- 
 kle and Madam Wishton carefully as to Judy's 
 behaviour and diHgence, and the housekeeper 
 pronoimced her a good, obedient child, lively 
 it was true, but a child of her years should be 
 lively, and there was no fault to be found. 
 
 Madam, the teacher, also gave a good report. 
 The little girl was doing well at her lessons 
 and practised faithfully. She was quick as a 
 little flash, but affectionate and easily influ- 
 enced. 
 
 " Poor httle thing, she will miss you greatly, 
 I fear," the teacher had added, and the accent 
 of pity went to the father's heart, and made 
 him all the more determined to put her in the 
 way of having all the pleasure she could dur- 
 ing her hours of freedom from study. 
 
 But Mr. Hicks had no idea of the plans form- 
 ing in Judy's shrewd little head. She intended 
 no wrong, but it did not occur to her father 
 that the wide-awake child had heard queer 
 stories from Meejee, Panpan, and other ser- 
 
88 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 vants, about the strange places and sights round 
 and about her island home that had excited the 
 child's curosity and made her eager to explore 
 somewhat for herself. 
 
 So he had felt entirely safe in saying to Yampa 
 that Miss Judy and Master Perry were to be in 
 his care afternoons on the place, and evenings 
 when they wished to drive. If the little peo- 
 ple preferred one of the large carriages they 
 were to have it, or the pony carriage as usual 
 was entirely at their disposal. 
 
 Mr. Hicks took it for granted that afternoons 
 when the sun was high the children would 
 remain in the garden or compound, as the 
 inclosed groimds of a gentleman's place in India 
 are commonly called. 
 
 To Judy, who was divided between smiles 
 and tears at her papa's intended trip, Mr. Hicks 
 said, 
 
 " Yampa is to have charge of you, my child, 
 as you wished, but Sundays you must go to 
 chapel as usual with Meejee or Mrs. Crinkle, 
 and should you be invited to a party, or attend 
 a concert Meejee is to go with you as she always 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 89 
 
 does. When a double carriage is used, Cid is 
 to drive and Yampa can take Jon's place, and 
 the little lady can give her orders and go where 
 she and her young friend choose, and be prop- 
 erly attended." 
 
 This, to Mr. Hicks' mind meant the Fort, the 
 Esplanade, and such drives as were usually taken 
 beyond the beautiful suburb of Malabar HiU. 
 
 Mr. Wakefield did not fail to give a few words 
 of kindly advice to his beloved little son, charg- 
 ing him to act hke a httle gentleman on all 
 occasions, to remember Judy was younger than 
 he, and to enjoy thoroughly all he could. He 
 was not the least afraid to trust his boy to such 
 care as Mr. Hicks thought proper for his cher- 
 ished little girl. 
 
 Then the day came for the party to start. 
 Judy kissed her papa many times but kept her 
 proud Uttle head erect while aching to throw 
 it on her father's shoulder and declare she could 
 not part with him even for all the liberty in 
 the world. 
 
 Mr. Wakefield hugged his boy and linked 
 his arm in his as together they paced the broad 
 
90 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 Teranda. Then the great travelling carriage 
 came to the foot of the steps, Cid holding the 
 lines with an important air, and Jon helping 
 the gentlemen with their cases and rugs. 
 
 In a moment they were gone, and Perry 
 turned to see poor Uttle Judy making up a 
 series of strange, downcast faces, her eyes 
 drooping and hands chnched. 
 
 " Feel bad ? " he asked, his own voice rather 
 low and shaky. 
 
 " Y-e-s," stammered Judy, putting her hand 
 to her throat, " something hurts in my neck." 
 
 " It's more likely in your throat," said Perry 
 half laughing, " mine hurts too." 
 
 " It's up here," said Judy, pressing her hand 
 against her white throat. " It feels as if an 
 egg had got stuck in it. Meejee said a frog 
 died that way once ; got a stone in the throat 
 that would n't go up or down, and choked it to 
 death. I hope I have n't got anything in mine, 
 part way down, feels like it though." 
 
 " That 's the way people feel when they want 
 to cry but are too brave," said Perry soberly. 
 
 " Let 's go find Yampa," said Judy feebly. 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 91 
 
 but part way across the hall she suddenly broke 
 away, rushed up the stairway to her own room, 
 leaving Perry to his fate. But the boy was 
 not much surprised. 
 
 " I don't care if 'tisn't brave ! " she sobbed 
 out after shutting the door, "it's my own pa- 
 pa — papa Hicks, that's gone way off and left 
 me, and I will cry if I want to, I wiU ! I will ! " 
 and down came her little foot twice in a pas- 
 sion of grief, as throwing herself on the small 
 white bed with its delicate lace spread and 
 broidered piUow-sUps she cried and cried until 
 so exhausted that she fell asleep. 
 
 Ah yes, her love for " papa Hicks " was in- 
 deed stronger than the desire for freedom and 
 being rid of Meejee's tiresome rule. 
 
 But it is a blessed thing that sorrow has but 
 httle space in the heart of a chUd, and when 
 an hour later Judy awoke and found it hard to 
 open her swollen eyes, she said to herself, 
 
 " Papa's gone to have a nice time, and he 
 wants Perry and me to have a nice time too, 
 and — what must Perry think ! " 
 
 At that she got up, sponged her eyes care- 
 fully, and called Meejee to dress her. 
 
92 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA= 
 
 The gentlemen had gone soon after lun- 
 cheon, it was now between three and four 
 o'clock, a very good time to be dressed for 
 dinner. 
 
 Meejee came slowly at the clapping of 
 Judy's hands. "I want to be dressed," said 
 Judy, with a httle mistress-Uke air, and please 
 Meejee, put on my pink China silk, I want to 
 go driving on the Esplanade this evening, so 
 does Perry, and I must be very nice." 
 
 Meejee tossed her head. "Would not 
 Ma'selle better be have Yampa to dress her?" 
 she asked. 
 
 Judy's quick mind worked in a woman-hke 
 way, for she answered at once, 
 
 " No, Meejee, you know not, but I will ask 
 Mrs. Crinkle to dress me, and when papa conies 
 I think I'd better teU him about your saying 
 that." 
 
 The woman's manner changed in a trice. 
 Even if she had been Judy's ayah for many 
 years, the master, she knew, would allow no 
 talk of this kind to Judy, especially when he 
 had chosen to give his permission to what had 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 93 
 
 angered her. Meejee knew far too much to 
 risk losing her easy position at the Villa Wel- 
 come. 
 
 "Lil ma' sella should know jokes," she said 
 with a playful shrug, " and not go with a com- 
 plaint against her ole ayah to her pa-jt>a, the 
 master. The China silk, you did say ? " 
 
 "Yes, Meejee, and of course if you were 
 joking I shan't tell papa, but that wasn't a 
 very nice joke, and I shall still want you for 
 chapel or may be a concert;" but the little 
 mistress decided on the spot that she should n't 
 care to attend any concerts while her papa was 
 away. 
 
 She found Perry deep in " a jolly story for 
 boys " as he said, but both children started off 
 to summon Yampa. The old gardener saw 
 them going toward the baobab tree, Judy 
 beckoning to him. The little folks seated 
 themselves on the rustic bench, Yampa at 
 their feet. 
 
 " We 'H go to the Esplanade to-night," Judy 
 announced, " and to-morrow night can't we see 
 the worshippers of the dog-star?" 
 
94 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 " I think so, Missy. There nothing secret 
 in their worsheep, only they go down by de 
 river where they can see de star de longes'. 
 Missy may have seen them widout knowin' 
 what they doin'." 
 
 After dinner Cid drove up with the barouche 
 and the children started for their drive. The 
 coachman wore his usual Hvery, and Yampa 
 who sat beside him was in livery also but of a 
 kind to give him the appearance of a lady's 
 groom. 
 
 The glowing sun sent the same pink hue 
 over everything as on the night of Judy's 
 stolen ride, and Malabar HiU was again alive 
 with all kinds of drivers, riders and people on 
 foot. / 
 
 On reaching the Esplanade it became neces- 
 sary to drive slowly, so many fine turnouts 
 were going abreast in the two directions, and 
 Cid looked well after the impatient horses, who 
 not having been out for a day or two would 
 have hked a neck and neck race with other 
 spirited thoroughbreds of their kind. 
 
 But the slow going was quite to Judy's mind. 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 95 
 
 " There's one of the government officers' new 
 bride," she said, as a splendid Enghsh drag 
 came alongside, the beautiful mottled Arabian 
 horses panting at the curb bits holding them 
 in check. 
 
 Perry looked in admiration at the fresh face 
 and girlish figure of the young lady on the 
 top of a high, gilded coach. Beside her was 
 her young husband and at her back other 
 young people were gayly perched. Inside the 
 coach were a gentleman and lady in middle 
 hfe. 
 
 The pretty bride wore white muslin over 
 shining yellow silk, her large hat was laden 
 with white and yellow ostrich feathers. A 
 mantle of buff gauze floated from her shoulders 
 and a parasol of yellow silk edged with broad 
 white lace screened her face from the still fer- 
 vent sun rays. Close beside the drag rode a 
 ■ couple of footmen in white, their shining boots 
 being the only color about their dress. 
 
 As the heavy carriage swept a httle ahead, 
 a dark, stately Hindu rode for a few moments 
 beside the barouche. He was mounted on a 
 
96 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 magnificent black horse that capered and 
 danced, curvetting to right and left as if at 
 play. The animal had superb trappings, the 
 saddle covered with velvet and having a deep 
 gold fringe around the edges. Hanging from 
 the bits in long loops under the horse's chin 
 were heavy chains, gold-plated and gleaming 
 with strange brilhance against the coal black- 
 ness of the prancing steed. His rider wore a 
 turban of muslin plaited high and bound about 
 with what looked like rings of gold. Loose 
 sUken blouse and trousers were of white, 
 striped with red, black and yellow, a queer 
 effect. 
 
 As the horse with his powerful rider shot 
 ahead, Yampa turned partly around so as to 
 throw his voice into the carriage. 
 
 " There, Missy ! dat de chief of de Serpent- 
 Charmers, dat jus' go by on de black boss. 
 There come de great festival nights soon, an' 
 he come from Calcutta to help celebrate." 
 
 " Oh, Perry ! " whispered Judy excitedly, 
 "let's make Yampa take us to the festival, 
 wouldn't you like to go ? " 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 97 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " said Perry, springing to the 
 idea. " That man's dress seemed rather Kke a 
 snake when you think of it. Do you suppose 
 Yampa could get us a chance to see their per- 
 formances ? " 
 
 "I think he could," said Judy, "we'll make 
 all we can of everything there is to see that 
 Yampa can take us to, and that means a good 
 many places where papa 'd find it hard to get 
 in." 
 
 Then the crowd on the great driveway be- 
 came more packed. The whole scene was 
 superb. The beach ran for two miles on a 
 straight road, the pink sea on one side, all 
 kinds of costly buildings terraced on the other. 
 Some were European in style, some Venetian, 
 some Gothic, others distinctly Indian, but all 
 setting well back from the road with a fine 
 garden at the front. 
 
 On a high terrace might be seen a fashion- 
 able caf& with smokers lounging on the ample 
 verandas, the last frequently surrounding two 
 stories of the building. Along this splendid 
 drive at this bewitching hour, the richest, old- 
 7 
 
98 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 est, most prominent citizens of Bombay take 
 their way. 
 
 It seemed to Perry that people of every na- 
 tion and clime under the sun were before him. 
 They were almost. But the greater part were 
 dark-skinned, clearly natives of the far-away 
 land and intense climate. 
 
 There were also Europeans in great number 
 and Americans in the usual style of dress only 
 in hght fabrics ; Arabs with crimson fez and 
 black tassel flying at the top, short, baggy, 
 white trousers, bare legs and bare or sandalled 
 feet ; Persians in gay, fanciful tunics and glit- 
 tering belts ; negroes with one scanty garment 
 of showy cotton, neck, arms and feet bare. 
 
 Priests in long, loose robes of white, flutter- 
 ing about them as they walked ; Parsees or 
 high caste Hindus in rich silken garments of 
 loose Eastern style, tunics for waists, bloomers 
 for trousers; merchants from Calcutta and 
 Shanghai clothed in the softest of silk in ample 
 folds, or in rich stiff brocades in straighter pe- 
 Usse fashion. Turbans were frequently wound 
 about their heads containing twenty yards of 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 99 
 
 softly twisted and folded silk. Wooden shoes, 
 or sandals of velvet curiously embroidered in 
 silver or gold thread were worn according to 
 preference. Then Germans, Italians, Russians, 
 Japanese and Frenchmen, Malays and various 
 other tribes and people made up the surprising 
 throng. 
 
 Slower still went the shining carriage until 
 sweet, mellow strains came wafted from beside 
 the rose-colored sea. They had driven far as 
 to the Queen's statue then cautiously turned 
 and were now in an increasing press. 
 
 " What 's that music I hear ? " asked Perry. 
 
 e. "We're coming near the grand music stand," 
 said Judy, " and a fine time we '11 have getting 
 by; it's always crushed up like this just here. 
 That's the Sepoy band you hear," she added, 
 the melodious strains growing nearer as they 
 crept along. " Papa says he sometimes thinks 
 the color of the water and the sky, and the soft 
 air gets into their playing." 
 
 Then Perry sat entranced. High up, under 
 a tasteful canopy draped with various banners 
 sat a company of native musicians, the band of 
 
100 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 Her Majesty's native soldiers of Bombay. The 
 burnished instruments they held shone in weird 
 contrast against their dark, regular features 
 crowned with white caps with gilded bands. 
 Their garments showed regimental colors, 
 chiefly white with red trimmings, with here 
 and there a medal showing on the breast. 
 
 The music was soft, dehcate, trilUng and 
 thrilhng, making Perry's pulses boimd with 
 strange dehght. As the carriage stopped a 
 short time because of the press, he seemed in 
 a misty, half-conscious dream. 
 
 The picturesque groups about him moved 
 like a slowly passing panorama. The quiet 
 sea from its pink crested wavelets reflected 
 shimmering gUnts of light along the shore. 
 A pink haze rested above the graceful canopy, 
 its skillful players in brilliant uniform beneath, 
 the band meantime lulHng him farther and 
 father away with the dreamy throbs of a wind- 
 ing barcarolle. 
 
 AU at once a gentleman in plain European 
 costume rode slowly along, followed by a na- 
 tive groom. Perry caught the low-spoken 
 
ON THE ESPLANADE. 101 
 
 words " American consul." One of the banners 
 over the canopy was quickly thrust to the 
 front, its folds spread wide, and the band struck 
 up " Hail Columbia." 
 
 At the sight and the sound Perry started 
 forward and gasped : 
 
 " Oh ! the Stars and Stripes ! The National 
 tune!" 
 
 The surcharged heart of the lad could stand 
 no more, and caring nothing for the crowd 
 hemming him in, nor for Judy close at hand, 
 the young American boy huddled into a heap 
 in a corner of the carriage, and sobbed as 
 though his heart would break. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NATIVES AND BAZAARS. 
 
 " T never knew it would make me feel like 
 
 JL that," Perry said, as on the return trip 
 Judy observed that she loved the American 
 flag better than any other, herself. 
 
 "I remember papa said on the steamer 
 coming over," Perry repHed, " that we never 
 knew how much we loved our own country 
 until we got away from it. But when I saw 
 that old flag I've seen hundreds of times, and 
 heard ' Hail Columbia ' out of all that foreign 
 brass, I thought I should go wild ! I did, Judy 
 sure ! Queer, wasn't it ? " 
 
 " Yes, I expect so," Judy replied absently. 
 
 She was wondering if she ever should see 
 the Enghsh flag with its Union Jack, white 
 ensign and bands of red, in a strange land, or 
 
NATIVES AND BAZAARS. 103 
 
 what she knew as the Oriental colors, a square 
 of checkered blue, white, yellow and red, that 
 all her Hfe she had seen floating high from the 
 masts of vessels, if it would make her feel as 
 Perry had felt. 
 
 On reaching home Judy found to her great 
 delight that the next day would be a holiday 
 for her. Madam Wishton was to go away and 
 would have to, omit the usual hours of teaching. 
 
 " If you 'd hke," said Mrs. Crinkle, " I '11 take 
 you with me to the Fort, and let Master Perry 
 see some of the bazaars open and trade going 
 on." 
 
 Judy thought that would be sport for Perry, 
 and for herself she always enjoyed going out 
 with Mrs. Crinkle. 
 
 Accordingly the next morning Cid appeared 
 with the pony carriage, and Mrs. Crinkle sat 
 beside him, the two children occupying the 
 back seat. 
 
 At the bazaars Perry was all attention and 
 interest. Mrs. Crinkle, who did not think it 
 necessary to keep the children close beside her, 
 let them roam at a httle distance by themselves. 
 
104 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 And again Perry thought he saw people from 
 about every quarter of the globe. 
 
 The bazaars were many of them a kind of 
 recess or cell in a building, and the fruit sellers 
 or those who had china, pottery or various fancy 
 stuffs to sell, would set them outside during the 
 day, then lock them up in the cells behind heavy 
 wooden shutters at night. 
 
 The manner of bargaining amused Perry 
 greatly once he imderstood how it was carried 
 on. Instead of asking the price of an article, 
 a shopper would step up and make an offer for 
 it, usually naming a small sum to begin with. 
 
 " Papa says that with many of the native 
 traders, customers would get cheated awfully 
 unless they did that way," Judy explained. 
 
 Then both children giggled softly while 
 watching a sale where a dark-bearded Turk 
 with a bright red fez mounted high on his head 
 wanted more money for a handsome little 
 tobacco jar than a well-dressed Arab wanted to 
 give. 
 
 The Arab put another silver piece to the 
 money already offered in his hand. 
 
NATIVES AND BAZAARS. 105 
 
 " Yah ! Bah ! Yoh ! " cried the Turk, putting 
 the jar back on the shelf as if that ended the 
 transaction. While his back was turned in 
 replacing the jar, the Arab turned away. But 
 no sooner did the Turk see him moving off, 
 than out he ran, caught hold of the Arab's 
 sleeve, rattled off some strange jargon and 
 seizing the jar held it out as if begging the man 
 he had trotted back to take it. 
 
 Coolly putting back in his pocket the last 
 piece of silver he had added to his former offer 
 the Arab placed the rest on the wooden form. 
 The Turk at once went about wrapping up 
 the jar in soft paper, all the time making up 
 wry faces, turning his head away from the 
 money, and showing in every way he could 
 that he considered he was receiving almost no 
 pay at all for what the Arab was about to carry 
 away. 
 
 " He looks as if it made him sick all over," 
 said Perry, laughing. 
 
 " He '11 be just as sick the next thing he 
 sells," said Judy, " he never has a chance to 
 get well J he 'U keep on looking just so sick aU 
 day." 
 
106 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Every little while a palanquin borne by four 
 men would stop before a bazaar, and a woman 
 usually closely veiled would step out of the 
 strange, box-like vehicle and proceed to bar- 
 gain for cloth, or perhaps fruit, or meat at a 
 stall where such things were sold. 
 
 Mrs. Crinkle allowed Judy to lead the way 
 to one of the caf 6s on a low green terrace where 
 they ordered cakes, sugared fruit and ice- 
 cream. The Uttle treat was in no way better 
 than what Judy had at home every day, but 
 there was a charm in sitting opposite the busy 
 bazaars, feeUng the warm air from the sea, 
 catching the near sparkle of waves, and per- 
 haps most entertaining of all, watching the 
 queer people. 
 
 There was no hurry, no rush. Far from 
 that, aU moved with languid steps and a slow 
 air as if anything Hke haste was a thing un- 
 known. 
 
 All at once Perry spied a man squatting 
 flat on the ground at one side of the road, a 
 large pad of paper in his lap, writing away as 
 fast as he could, while another man sat be- 
 
NATIVES AND BAZAARS. 107 
 
 side him talking fast as if telling him what to 
 write. 
 
 " Oh, Judy ! " exclaimed the boy, " what 
 do you suppose that man is about?" 
 
 "That is a letter writer, Perry. He's a 
 Hindu by his dress, but the man he is writing 
 for is either a Chinaman or a Jap. You '11 see 
 that often on the road, a Hindu perhaps writ- 
 ing for another Hindu who has never learned 
 even his letters, or perhaps the writer-man is 
 so learned he can write in other languages 
 beside his own, then he can make plenty of 
 money." 
 
 On the way home Mrs. Crinkle let them go 
 into a pagoda, a tent-like place of Chinese pair 
 tern, with a canopy roof upturned at the ends. 
 There were two stories to the fanciful building 
 with a Chinaman in each trying to sell the 
 pretty wares. 
 
 Perry bought some rice-paper pictures, which 
 were figures of Chinamen and China women in 
 gay dress, also of beautiftd birds that seemed 
 to be raised - on the brittle, deUcate paper as 
 white as snow, and painted in the most bril- 
 
108 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 liant colors. He also bought some puzzles in 
 little ivory boxes with shding covers, which 
 consisted of differently shaped pieces of ivory 
 most delicately and exquisitely carved. With 
 these puzzles there also came Httle paper pam- 
 phlets made of coarser, yellowish rice paper, 
 with pictures showing how the pieces of ivory 
 could be joined together, making varioxis fig- 
 ures. 
 
 Judy bought an ivory bar on which were 
 carved rings and chains all in ivory, and with 
 it a little paper book, showing how all the rings 
 and chains could be shpped from the bar. It 
 was quite a puzzle to slip them all off without 
 looking to see how it was done. 
 
 Outside the pagoda three lads clothed in loose, 
 bright figured cotton garments were plajdng 
 with considerable skill on guitars. They were 
 mere street musicians, such as are seen almost 
 everywhere in cities, and Judy tossed them a 
 few " silver bits ; " it amused Perry to have 
 them follow the little party to the carriage as 
 Judy expressed it, " screeching out blessings." 
 
 They again started homeward avoiding the 
 
NATIVES AND BAZAARS. 109 
 
 tramways, as the street cars were called. They 
 drove slowly as a ride in the morning was a 
 rare thing for Judy as well as her young com- 
 panion ; she was almost always at her lessons 
 then. 
 
 They could see the great fans or punkahs 
 swaying in rooms as they passed along. At 
 one place they passed a native school held out 
 doors as was quite common, and Perry laughed 
 at seeing the little half-naked children sitting 
 on the ground. 
 
 , "What are those men with buckets?" he 
 asked the next moment. 
 
 " Water-carriers," Judy replied. " India is 
 fuU of them." 
 
 " And who are those fellows ? " he asked at 
 the next turning. 
 
 A number of men in dark tunics, short 
 trousers, bare-legged and bare-footed were pac- 
 ing along as if going to some place of business, 
 or perhaps looking for something to do. 
 
 "They're Lascars or Coolies," said the ever 
 ready Judy, " the native servants or messengers 
 that do errands, carry messages, or go out by 
 
110 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 the day as sweepers, cooks, or anything they 
 can pick up to help them earn a Httle some- 
 thing. Servants are seen everjrw^here in In- 
 dia, but every man or woman has just one 
 kind of work and won't raise a finger to do 
 any other." 
 
 Judy was speaking almost in a whisper as 
 she did not want Cid to overhear, but with the 
 rumble of the carriage and her low voice there 
 was not much danger. 
 
 " What makes them so set ? " asked Perry. 
 
 "WeU," began Judy a little loftily, "it is 
 their way. They don't know much so they 're 
 narrow. Papa says it makes people narrow 
 not to know much, so they always stick to one 
 thing. Now Yampa is more knowing, so he 
 is n't so bigoty." Judy meant " bigoted," and 
 that was not exactly the word she wanted 
 either, as it means not being willing to give 
 any quarter to those who may differ from us 
 in their religious belief, so being narrow in 
 that way, but she talked on : " So although he 
 is head-gardener and master of all out 'doors 
 work, he is willing to turn nursey and go 
 around with us." 
 
NATIVES AND BAZAARS. Ill 
 
 She stopped to choke back a low laugh, then 
 added very softly, " Now he, up there," and 
 she pointed droUy with both forefingers at Cid, 
 "wouldn't do anything but drive horses, not 
 to be King of the Cannibal Islands ; and that 
 Bappo woxildn't do anything but butler's work 
 any more than he would fly into the ocean ; 
 and Meejee wouldn't lift a finger except to 
 dress me and take care of my clothes, and 
 watch me like a spider, or else do it for some 
 other child, any more than she'd be an elephant 
 driver. Ooh, that makes me think ! Did you 
 ever ride an elephant?" 
 
 " No, I never happened to." 
 
 "Well then, you must. Did you ever get 
 onto a camel's back ? " 
 
 "No, never." 
 
 " Well, then don't. Such a mean trick as 
 Dr. Quince-Baroo played me once ! He is a 
 half-English half-Indian doctor, very skillful 
 they say, but I had been kind of peeny weeny 
 one time and papa was anxious, because you 
 see I 'm all he 's got — " Judy had on her grand- 
 est story-teUing air — "so he sent for Doctor 
 
112 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Quince-Baroo, and instead of giving me some 
 sensible medicine, lie winked slyly at papa — 
 I saw him — and said what I needed, was a nice 
 little spring cleaning, and I had better have a 
 camel ride. 
 
 " Of course, I thought the fresh air was what 
 he meant, so off I started with papa as gay as 
 could be. Now Perry — " Judy interrupted 
 herself suddenly, — " what are you squinnying 
 up your eyes for ? If you 're going to laugh 
 at me I 'd better not tell it." 
 
 " Oh, go on," said Perry, trying his best to 
 keep his eyes in place. " You did have on 
 such a dreadful air, Judy, it nearly upset me." 
 
 "Well," continued Judy, eyeing Perry pretty 
 sharply, " they made a camel kneel down, and 
 I got into the Httle frame on his back and sat 
 down. Really, Perry Wakefield — " Judy 
 closed her eyes and put her widely spread fin- 
 gers over her heart — " I thought I was pitch- 
 ing into the sea when that creature got up ! 
 First he scrawled out one great lean leg and I 
 pitched backwards. Then he scrawled out 
 another leg and I pitched forwards. Then he 
 
NATIVES AND BAZAARS. 113 
 
 scrumped up tlie rest of him and went swing- 
 ing off, I'm sure I don't know where to. 
 
 " After a little time I screamed to papa that 
 I was dying sure. And they made mister 
 camel kneel down again ; papa had been side 
 of me on a pony all the time, and when he 
 lifted me out of that old frame, my ! wasn't I 
 sick ! 
 
 "I told papa I'd like to spring clean Doctor 
 Quince-Baroo ! and the next time I saw him I 
 wouldn't speak to him. 
 
 " There ! Perry Wakefield, you are laughing 
 at me, and I think that you are most as bad as 
 that old half -Indian doctor ! " 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A CROWD AND DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 
 
 THAT afternoon as soon as Judy was 
 dressed for dinner, she ran with Perry 
 to the garden as it was getting her habit to do, 
 to find Yampa. 
 
 "Leetle Missy," was expected it seemed, for 
 this hour or two before dinner was a time that 
 Judy enjoyed very much now that she had 
 Perry for company, and Yampa was allowed to 
 devote himself to her entirely. 
 
 " We must see the dog-star worshippers to- 
 night, Yampa," she said glibly, " and oh, please, 
 can't you get us a place where we can see the 
 Serpent-charmers, during their festival? It 
 would be such fine fun ! We 're both old enough 
 to see them." 
 
 Yampa with arms crossed as usual and sitting 
 
A CROWD AND DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 115 
 
 quietly on the sward, replied with a sober, 
 thoughtful face, 
 
 " I take you and young master where you 
 see a star worsheepers very easy, an' I drive 
 pretty nigh one of de places where you see an' 
 hear dem, but de Serpent-charmers! that a 
 wild sight ! I do' know. Missy 'bout dat." 
 
 " Oh, I do," said Judy so chippily that Yampa 
 wrinkled his forehead in a questioning way. 
 "They'd give you a fine chance, Yampa, be- 
 cause they'd see you was a native, and then 
 you shall have some big pieces of silver to 
 offer, and there won't be a bit of trouble. 
 
 " And when we 're out driving to-morrow 
 night," Judy went on, as if their seeing the 
 Serpent-charmers was all settled, " couldn't we 
 have an elephant ride. Perry and I ? " 
 
 " Yas, oh yas, it easy to have el'phant ride," 
 Yampa replied more cheerfully. " We go to 
 one of de compoun's where there a good ma- 
 hout I knows, an' I leave de ponies an' go in 
 with yous ; you can go roun' de course once, go 
 roun' twice if yous want to. Master Perree 
 never go on de el'phant ? " 
 
1 16 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " No, I 've never tried it yet, Yampa. Some 
 of my boy chums have ridden them at the cir- 
 cus or the park in America, but I 'd ever so 
 much rather say I rode one first in India where 
 they belong." 
 
 " You no ride de white el'phant," said Yampa, 
 " dat sacret. But it no very white, it ahnost 
 yellow or gray, and he hard to get, cost much 
 moneys. Lots of de people worsheep de white 
 el'phant." 
 
 Faithful old Yampa was waiting when, soon 
 as dinner was over Perry and Judy scrambled 
 without much dignity but with a good deal of 
 glee into the pony carriage, and were soon 
 making their way along the beautiful hill. 
 
 There could be no fast driving even if any- 
 one had wished it for the crowd of carriages 
 even early in the evening was always great. 
 
 The ponies tossed their heads and gave im- 
 patient little flings of their delicate fetlocks, 
 but Yampa held them in and they were too 
 thoroughly broken to make any trouble. At 
 length they got down into the town. 
 
 " What are those women doing ? " Perry 
 
A CROWD AND DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 117 
 
 asked, as they came near some women who 
 were on the ground and bending over large, 
 flat stones. 
 
 "They're pounding rice, Perry. They put 
 the stalks of rice on those great stones, then 
 take smaller stones and pound out the seeds. 
 I scarely ever notice them because I've seen 
 them so many times." 
 
 Yampa had driven into a wide street and 
 now stopped before an inclosure, a piece of 
 ground fenced in with some kind of a sign over 
 the arched entrance. Inside, appeared a small 
 park with winding drives, and two or three 
 huge elephants with showy trappings and how- 
 dahs — inclosed seats — on their backs. The 
 mahout, or driver, stood side of each. 
 
 One of these came forward at sight of 
 Yampa and his young charges. It was the 
 "good mahout" Yampa had said he knew, 
 and the next minute a small ladder with flat 
 carpeted steps was placed against the side of 
 an enormous elephant. 
 
 The great animal stood stock stiU as Perry 
 went steadily up the high mount and seated 
 
118 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 himself in the velvet covered seat, and he was 
 surprised to see Judy pop into the howdah 
 ahnost as soon as he could look around. The 
 nimble child was not so much a stranger to an 
 elephant's back. 
 
 The owner walked beside the ambling crea- 
 ture guiding him around the course. 
 
 "Oh dear! I should think 'twas a great 
 rocking-chair," said Perry, not looking alto- 
 gether pleased at the swaying, reeUng motion. 
 " Do you like it, Judy ? " 
 
 "It's better than a camel, Perry, because 
 this keeps up rather even, but after a camel 
 gets a-going he swings along until the feeling 
 inside you is frightful. Oh ! if ever I get hold 
 of that old Doctor Quince-Baroo ! " 
 
 Perry laughed. " This makes me think of 
 the English channel," he said. " Someone 
 told me it wasn't very rough the night we 
 crossed, but the boat kept up a swing, swing, 
 swing, swing, that mamma said was much 
 like a question of how long you could stand it. 
 I think once round this place will be enough 
 for me." 
 
A CROWD AND DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 119 
 
 "All right," said Judy, "I'm comfortable 
 enough, because you see I used to like to ride 
 the elephants when I was httle, and Meejee 
 never was better contented than when she was 
 all dressed up and swinging along on one of 
 their backs." 
 
 The elephant wobbled more and more as it 
 reached the far end of the compound, and Per- 
 ry was thankful when Judy informed him they 
 were getting near the end of the course. 
 
 " You don't want to go round again ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " No, sir ! " 
 
 Perry spoke with so much force besides say- 
 ing "sir" to a Little girl that Judy laughed 
 merrily. 
 
 The boy scratched down the ladder much 
 more rapidly than he had chmbed up, the 
 mahout was paid, and the little company went 
 out from under the arched enclosure. Judy at 
 once clapped her hands. 
 
 " Oh, goody, goody ! " she cried in adelighted 
 voice. "I do believe some of Her Majesty's 
 troops are coming along. Oh, Perry they're 
 grand to see, but, what shall we do ? " 
 
120 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 The carriage was drawn up close to the side 
 of the road where a Coohe in merely a checked 
 cotton waist and short trousers aU in one, was 
 carefully holding the ponies' heads. 
 
 "If Missy could get up to de caffa," said 
 Yampa looking anxiously up at a high terrace, 
 "it would be well, de crowd a fright." 
 
 The crowd was already getting frightful, 
 but Judy clutched Perry's arm exclaiming, 
 " Quick ! We must fly up the steps before 
 any more people get ahead of us, and we '11 
 have a fine place." 
 
 Up the long flights flew the children, Yampa 
 panting along close in the rear. With jost- 
 hng and crowding and ripples of laughter the 
 plucky httle pair forced their way up until 
 they reached the broad, shaded veranda of a 
 gayly-decked, richly-tinted cafe. Here they 
 stood triumphant, and Judy flushed and happy 
 found breath to again cry softly, " Glo-ree ? " 
 
 The band approached but slowly. Guards 
 were clearing the middle of the road, carriages 
 and prancing horses were ranged in long lines 
 on either side. The veranda was getting 
 
A CROWD ANB DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 121 
 
 crowded, and the intelligent Hindu to whom it 
 belonged began looking around thinking of his 
 gains. 
 
 " If Missy go to de upper veranda and order 
 sumpin', I think it better," Yampa advised. 
 
 Quick as thought Judy caught hold of Perry 
 again. " Oh, yes, you give an order, please, 
 Yampa," she said, and familiar with such places 
 she led Perry to an inside passage with steps 
 at the side, and they were almost immediately 
 on the upper veranda where only such people 
 were allowed to go as ordered refreshments. 
 
 Seated at one of the little lacquered tables 
 with neat square napkins under the plates, 
 they were soon served with lemonade, sher- 
 bet and biscuit, while Yampa was allowed to 
 stand by as their servant. 
 
 But the splendid pageant was coming in 
 sight, and the sweet sherbet was allowed to 
 melt as the children stood close to the raihng 
 watching the thrilhng sight. 
 
 On, on, they came, brave Enghsh soldiers 
 with part of a regiment of almost equally 
 brave Sepoys, their coats of dazzHng red set 
 
122 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 off by gold ornaments, and orders worn on the 
 breasts of many, and by the gold fringed 
 epaulettes of the officers. 
 
 The regular hne of ghttering bayonets, 
 white gloves, white trousers and shining 
 topped boots caught the pink and white tints 
 of the lowering sun which also glorified the 
 wonderful crowd watching from every near 
 space where a foot could rest. 
 
 Cheer after cheer arose as the soldiery 
 marched by, the regimental band playing a 
 mUitary tune to which every man in the line 
 stepped perfectly. 
 
 Perry knew that the veranda was getting 
 crowded and that at intervals Judy made 
 some Httle exclamation of pleasure. But as 
 usual when anything pleased him greatly 
 he was very quiet, and the strangeness and 
 brilliancy of the scene kept his eyes roving 
 from spot to spot as he stood silent and ab- 
 sorbed. 
 
 After the soldiers had gone by, it was some 
 time before the great throng could move 
 away, and Judy began explaining the differ- 
 
A CROWD AND DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 123 
 
 ent costumes and the people wearing them in 
 quite an intelligent way for a child. And 
 Perry was glad to listen and learn about it all. 
 
 Here appeared a native lady clad in fine 
 silk and calling herself a princess. Diamonds 
 and other jewels were flashing on her arms, 
 at her breast and in her ears. She was borne 
 through the crowd by white bullocks attached 
 to a curious carriage or vehicle that Perry said 
 made him think of an old-fashioned bedstead 
 of his grandmother's called a "four-poster." 
 A canopy was over her head and several ser- 
 vants followed behind her. 
 
 Then a young fellow calling himself a rajah, 
 which in India means a native prince, paraded 
 at the side of the tent-like carriage, his flowing 
 tunic embroidered with threads of gold, a 
 watch chain dangling from his neck, diamonds 
 ghttering on his hands and his whole manner 
 and dress proclaiming him a man of rank 
 among his own people. 
 
 Merchants by scores draped in white mushn 
 with spotless turbans raised high above their 
 heads passed slowly along. 
 
124 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 'Parsee women of low caste, too poor to ride, 
 draped in a "sari," a garment straight as a 
 sheet but deftly fastened into shape and of 
 bright green and gold in color, shpped silently 
 midst the throng, the great gold hoops in their 
 ears catching and reflecting the light. 
 
 Mahometans with enormous turbans looking 
 like turrets or domes on their heads, and often 
 of the favorite green and gold, in some cases 
 followed the remarkable custom of wearing 
 long beards that were dyed a brilliant red. 
 
 "That shows," said Judy, "that they've 
 been on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Holy City 
 in Arabia where Mahomet their great prophet 
 was bom." 
 
 On the veranda with the children were three 
 or four Shanghai merchants, rich Chinamen 
 wearing long braids down their backs, called 
 " cues." Their pantaloons were embroidered 
 with great elegance, and the white satin or 
 brocaded silk vests under gorgeously colored 
 timics were of the richest and most expensive 
 fabrics. 
 
 Gold chains were about their necks, and the 
 
A CROWD AND DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 125 
 
 soft, evenly piled and folded turbans of silk 
 had a jeweled button in the front showing 
 their rank. Their embroidered sandals of 
 gleaming satin had thick soles in which they 
 walked noiselessly. 
 
 Parsees all in white with high hats shaped 
 like a funnel and perhaps covered with bright 
 spangles were also near by, and now and then 
 one of them would take off his hat, place it on 
 a corner table and draw a close velvet cap 
 over his crown. 
 
 " Papa says many of those Parsees are terri- 
 bly rich," whispered Judy, " and then as gen- 
 erous as they can be. None of their people 
 ever suffer for anything or are ever allowed 
 to want. They obey the Queen, keep all the 
 laws, and papa says do a great deal of good." 
 
 Soon as possible the carriage was reached, 
 and out of the crowd Yampa drove toward the 
 river bank. At one point a few men seemed 
 to be going through a strange performance, 
 but the ponies trotted on until they came to a 
 much larger gathering. Yampa guided the 
 ponies quite near the native groups but told 
 
126 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 the children they had no need to get out of 
 the carriage. 
 
 The men and women gathered near the 
 waters' edge, were watching a star that was 
 slowly sinking out of sight. They were pray- 
 ing so busily that no notice was taken of 
 several people who watched their singular 
 movements. Some stood upright with arms 
 stretched toward the glowing star. Others 
 bent way over with the fervor or strength of 
 their prayers. 
 
 At times Perry heard a strange word that 
 was softly repeated and that he thought 
 sounded like " Om : Om : Om." 
 
 " Is ' Om ' an idol ? " he asked Yampa who 
 was standing beside the horses. 
 
 " No, oh no ! " Yampa replied as if shocked. 
 
 "De fire-worsheepers hate an idol. They 
 love de fire, or de sun, or de dog-star. They 
 all de same as de great Vishnu or Krishma, — 
 all a-mean God. 
 
 "De only name some of them know is 
 Vishnu ; others will say Krishna ; e-der means 
 light or knowledge, or fire, or earth, or water, 
 
A CROWD AND DOG STAR WORSHIPPERS. 127 
 
 all mean their God. De great name they 
 sometimes speak in deep prayer is ' Om.' " 
 Yampa spoke the name softly and with bowed 
 head. 
 
 " It holy, sacret. You hear it often ? Oh 
 no, not often. But there sixty million o' 
 peoples in India as worsheep Vishnu or Krish- 
 na — de wonderful ' Oni.' " 
 
 It was hard for Perry to sleep that night. 
 Before his eyes was the red and gold splendor 
 of Her Majesty's soldiers, the gaudy dresses of 
 the dark-visaged crowd, the magnificent pink 
 and white light of sea and sky, the glittering 
 carriages with their liveried coachmen and 
 footmen, the flashes of gilding and silver on har- 
 ness, belt and panel, the weird worshippers by 
 the shore. 
 
 He got up and went over to the window. 
 Through the open space he could see plainly 
 the high malabar creeper running all around 
 the railing of the veranda. He smelled the 
 tuberosa, jasmine, memosas and ferns, could 
 see the dark green of nightshade, and rows of 
 stately palms and Chinese pines. 
 
128 A LITTLE AMEEICAN^ GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 He saw also the outline of great ebony trees, 
 and caught the delicious odor of other tropical 
 trees, cinnamon, pineapple, the pungent scent 
 of the camphor tree, and the stronger one of 
 sandal wood, and cocoanut palms. 
 
 He also distinguished in the moist night air 
 the perfume from a splendid acacia tree with 
 its generous clusters of golden flowers, and of a 
 papayer with its enormous fruit gleaming in the 
 white, clear light. The blended fragrance of 
 spicy gums and richly scented blossoms made 
 the humid atmosphere drowsy and dreamy. 
 In the distance guitars tinkled to the jollity of 
 a late dance. The dull murmur of hoof-beats 
 also sounded here and there. 
 
 " It is a won-der-ful, won-der-ful coimtry ! " 
 murmured the Httle American. And leaning 
 upon the broad window-seat with the shutters 
 way back from the wide opening, he fell asleep. 
 
 In dreams he saw again the mixed, brilliant 
 crowd, and floating in the scented air above him 
 heard the mystic, magical word, " Om : Om : 
 Om." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE SERPENT CHAEMEES. 
 
 WAS Yampa won over as to seeing the 
 serpent-charmers ? Oh yes. He prom- 
 ised the breezy pair that after a few days, when 
 the Festival of Serpents was well under way, 
 they should see the strange performance. 
 
 "Yous mus' be sober as some snake you- 
 selves," said Yampa, who was always in fear 
 lest Judy's- Uvely little tongue or her quick 
 giggle would make trouble for them all. 
 
 Perry and Judy were on rustic seats be- 
 tween the close spaces of the banyan tree. 
 Yampa, who held a Uttle Russian poodle, Trix 
 by name, and that was a mass of black, silky, 
 crimply hair, stood for once, leaning against 
 a strong limb of the tree. 
 
 " It mus' cost some moneys," he was saying, 
 9 
 
130 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IK INDIA. 
 
 " to get some stand where yous can see de ser- 
 pents, 'cause so many of de natives go to de 
 grove, no one lets me inside de ring witli two 
 cMlrens imless I gives moneys to pay." 
 
 Judy was quick to say the money should be 
 ready, and Yampa talked on. 
 
 " De greatest day of de fest'val is de day 
 when Krishna, de sun god, kUled de great ser- 
 pent dat was doin' much mischiefs through de 
 land." 
 
 Perry meantime had been noticing a sly 
 monkey that crept nearer and nearer to where 
 Yampa leaned against the tree. All at once 
 it reached out a long, hairy arm, and seizing 
 little Trix's crimply tail where it hung at the 
 back of Yampa' s elbow, gave it a direful 
 tweak. 
 
 Trix fairly screamed with fright and pain, 
 but the monkey held on until the last minute 
 possible, then scrambled like the little imp it 
 was into the topmost branches of the banyan. 
 
 The poodle's loud cries and sharp yaps were 
 all that could be heard for several minutes, 
 then Yampa talked to the trembling little 
 
THE SERPENT CHARMERS. 131 
 
 creature just as he would have talked to a 
 child. 
 
 " Now you sees, Trix, what it bring you, to 
 worry an' torment de poor leetle monkeys all 
 de time. I'se tole you times an' times, it no 
 a good doggy to bark at de monkey an' chase 
 them mos' to death. Now some monkey ketch 
 you tail, and you no hke it ? Oh no, dat no 
 fun for Trix. 
 
 " Now we have to go an' get you comb'd 
 all smooth. Good doggy, good monkey, no 
 more trouble if you be good youse'f." 
 
 Perry had laughed until he was tired, and 
 as Yampa moved ofE with whimpering little 
 Trix, he told Judy how slyly the monkey had 
 come down the tree to where Yampa stood 
 with his back to him. 
 
 " Oh, they cut aU sorts of capers," Judy re- 
 plied. " I saw a big monkey watch once, until 
 the stable cat was asleep, then it pounced on 
 his back, scratched old Tommy's head with aU 
 its might, and, quick as a cat usually is, the 
 monkey was up the tree before poor Tommy 
 knew what had happened except that he had 
 a headache." 
 
132 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Both children laughed, then Judy added, 
 " Papa says they're full of revenge sometimes 
 and pay back what other animals do to plague 
 them." 
 
 For a few days the usual after-dinner drives 
 were enjoyed, besides free, merry strolls 
 through the grounds in the afternoon when it 
 was not too hot. They had especially gone 
 in state more than once to the Esplanade, a 
 pleasure of which Perry thought he should 
 never tire. 
 
 It was the pleasantest time of the year be- 
 fore either the greatest heat of the summer, 
 or the rainy season, when for three months 
 rain is hkely to fall without ceasing. 
 
 On one of the drives they met a man very 
 scantily clothed and painted hideously. 
 
 "See that pretty creature," said Judy. 
 " Is n't he handsome ? " 
 
 She nudged Perry the next instant to hush 
 his sudden laugh. "That's a Fakir, Perry. 
 Some people call him a dervish or dancing 
 priest. He is a Hindu and does aU kinds of 
 queer, funny things to make people believe 
 
THE SERPENT CHAEMEES. 133 
 
 he adores his religion, and can't think of any- 
 thing else." 
 
 " I think it would be a good thing for him 
 to think of washing his face," said Perry. 
 
 " Yes, and keep on with the whole of him," 
 put in Judy. " But Meejee says they often 
 dance themselves nearly to death in a kind of 
 mad reUgious ' f ren-za ' she calls it. What do 
 you suppose she means by that?" 
 
 " Religious frenzy," promptly returned Per- 
 ry. " It must be they get all worked up until 
 they are so excited they are nearly crazy." 
 
 " Yes, and Meejee told me," Judy went on, 
 " that they sometimes are cruel to themselves 
 to show real love for their religion, and that 
 they want to suffer for it." 
 
 " How much better to be a Christian," said 
 Perry thoughtfully. " I 'm thankful I was n't 
 brought up a Hindu." 
 
 " I am too ! " exclaimed Judy. " Papa has 
 often said I didn't know how much I had to 
 be thankful for, and I think papa Hicks says 
 the truth about it." 
 
 Judy was quite sober for a little while then 
 
134 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 she went on, "The Hindus mean what they 
 beheve all right I suppose, and they are dread- 
 fully kind-hearted and do real kind things. 
 Meejee took me once into a hospital for sick 
 animals, down at Black Town, at the end of 
 the Esplanade. It is called the Jain. I think 
 papa scolded her for it afterwards because it 
 made me cry, but she had some relative there 
 she wanted to see, so took me in. 
 
 " Why, Perry Wakefield ! all kinds of sick 
 animals were there having the nicest care ! 
 Some dret'fly old crows made me laugh they 
 hopped about so queerly, but come to find out 
 they were almost blind they were so old. But 
 there were horses and dogs and cats, and oh ! 
 ever so many animals that were sick or lame, 
 having poultices, and bandages, and sick food, 
 and being treated as kindly as if they were 
 grown up people." 
 
 The chief afternoon of the Festival of Ser- 
 pents soon came. Judy was in great glee but 
 would sober down every few moments to give 
 Perry good ad\ice. 
 
 " Now remember, Perry Wakefield, there is 
 
THE SERPENT CHARMERS. 135 
 
 to be no laughing so anyone can hear when we 
 get to Serpent town. Yampa says that even 
 if we do pay pretty well to get near the 'bowls,' 
 whatever that means, he shall trot us out if we 
 begin to laugh, so we had better look out." 
 
 It was to a thickly shaded place that Yampa 
 drove the ponies that afternoon. The sun, 
 taking hours for its white and rosy setting, was 
 seen through a forest of trees where Yampa 
 gave over the care of the carriage and ponies 
 to a willing Coolie who would have stood at 
 his place beside them half the night for the 
 silver piece he was promised. 
 
 All along the road after leaving Malabar Hill 
 signs of the festival were seen, especially as 
 they neared the Fort, and passed the bungalows 
 of rich Parsees and the Hindus of high caste. 
 The houses were brightly illuminated, and more 
 than one procession was passed of natives gaily 
 decked out and marching to the music, or 
 rather the terrible noise of tom-toms, cymbals 
 and hautboys. 
 
 Tom-toms are a kind of drum ; cymbals are 
 like hollow brass plates clashed together with 
 
136 A LITTLE A3VIERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 a fierce clang, while hautboys (ho-boys) are 
 wind instnunents shaped something like a 
 flute but wider at the end. 
 
 Into the grove went Yampa holding Perry 
 by one hand and Judy by the other. The 
 crowd was great and Yampa said with the 
 wrinkled forehead he always bore when anx- 
 ious or perplexed, 
 
 " I must try hard to get leetle master and 
 Missy one good place to see." 
 
 He spoke to more than one native, showing 
 to each a number of sUver pieces but it was of 
 no use, only someone in authority could help 
 him. 
 
 By and by a man came along in a long dark 
 robe whom Yampa hailed with dehght. He 
 spoke a few words Judy did not understand 
 and again showed the handful of sUver. The 
 man did not smile or bow but merely moved 
 solemnly away. 
 
 " I hope I get some stand now," Yampa said. 
 
 The sober man came gliding through the 
 throng after a few moments and made a sign 
 at which Yampa with the children followed 
 
THE SERPENT CHARMERS. 137 
 
 him, and after considerable pushing and elbow- 
 ing the little company reached a large, cleared 
 space. 
 
 The stump of a felled tree was quite wide 
 enough for both Perry and Judy to stand upon, 
 and at once the sight became full of interest. 
 The trees were so thick outside of the cleared 
 space that great torches of blazing pitch were 
 ' stuck not far apart on high poles. 
 
 " De flambo give good light," said Yampa, 
 who was geatly pleased at having got so fine 
 a place for viewing all that was going on. 
 
 Here, one could get an idea of the multitude 
 that had come together. The trees aU about 
 were alive with people who had chmbed into 
 them the better to watch the fearless, wonder- 
 ful charmers who were soon to begin their 
 strange exhibition. 
 
 Images of Krishna, the sun -god, were 
 mounted at various spots, and before them 
 crowded women in thin, sparse attire offering 
 rice, sugar, and many prayers, that they 
 might be kept from the sting of deadly ser- 
 pents so dangerous and numerous throughout 
 the hot country of India. 
 
138 A LITTLE AMEEICAK GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 It was already growing hot enough at the 
 time of the festival, and the dreaded cobra 
 capello becomes the livelier and more active 
 the warmer the weather. 
 
 Pretty soon the strange proceedings began. 
 With the blare and din of the loud instru- 
 ments and midst the murmur of prayers and 
 the uplifting of hands, a company of serpent 
 charmers went into the great ring, the crowd 
 closing in as far as was allowed. 
 
 The men wore tunics, and trousers that 
 reached scarcely to the knee. Their legs and 
 feet were bare. Great bowls had been placed 
 on the ground, and now, women with jars held 
 steadily on their heads, came forward and 
 nearly filled the bowls with milk. 
 
 Out from great baskets leaped the terrible 
 serpents as the charmers opened them near 
 the ground. The fearful reptiles are ex- 
 tremely fond of milk, and the children smiled 
 at each other as the serpents sprang for the 
 bowls and plunged half their bodies into the 
 deep, wide hoUows. 
 
 At that, the keepers, who had no fear and 
 
THE SERPENT CHAEMEES. 139 
 
 really appeared to have some charm about 
 them keeping danger away, would seize a 
 snake and pull it away from its feast. The 
 cobra, furious at being so rudely disturbed, 
 would swell out with rage, raise its frightful 
 head erect, and seem about to dart forward 
 and strike its terrible fangs into the daring 
 man. 
 
 The crowd would try to shrink back with 
 fear, but that being impossible the prayers 
 would grow louder, and rice and sugar would 
 fly at the images of Krishna lodging in all the 
 spaces about the figures until they looked as 
 if thickly powdered. 
 
 But a smart slap from the long sticks of the 
 charmers would send the serpent grovelling 
 on the ground where it would try to crawl 
 back to one of the bowls of milk. 
 
 Perry gazed around. A vast mass of dusky 
 figures in all kinds of costumes, some gay and 
 decked with flaring jewels, some in mere dark 
 drapings, others in scarce but fantastic cloth- 
 ing, gaped and craned and watched with star- 
 ing gaze all that was going on in the great, 
 well-lighted circle. 
 
140 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 The clang and din of the brass instruments 
 were enough to make one deaf. As if that 
 were not enough, the prayers going forth on 
 all sides made a loud murmur. The pitch 
 knots threw shadowy, lurid hght amid the 
 trees, adding a crackling sound. The charm- 
 ers were giving milk to some of the serpents 
 and teasing others. 
 
 Women still came with jars and jars of milk 
 on their heads. People watched, fascinated 
 by the power of enchantment enabhng these 
 men to play with the most dreaded and deadly 
 crawling beasts of all India. 
 
 Then while the great reptiles gorged them- 
 selves with milk, the charmers formed a circle 
 about them and performed a kind of frenzied 
 or wild dance, thrusting out their dark, bare 
 Hmbs, and shouting some barbaric songs to a 
 kind of chant-like tune. 
 
 It was indeed a wild scene. Yampa had 
 been right in calling it such. 
 
 " What would people in America think of a 
 sight hke this ? " Perry asked himself, but he 
 at once answered the question in his own mind. 
 
THE SEEPENT CHARMEES. 141 
 
 " We coiold n't have it there not even in a cir- 
 cus ; these pahns and scented trees, these faces, 
 dresses, and serpents. Ah ! this is India, and 
 there can be but one India in the world!" 
 
 Going home, Judy was surprised to find her- 
 self all tired out. 
 
 " I feel just that way too," said Perry. 
 
 " It de excite," said Yampa kindly. " I feel 
 excite myse'f in de great jam wi' de serpents 
 a-hissin', an' de crowd a-backin'. I tell yous 
 it be a wUd sight." 
 
 But even now after the evening had sped 
 away, for the performance had been a long 
 one, Yampa must needs hold the impatient 
 ponies with a firm hand so great was the press 
 of carriages all up and down the verdant slopes 
 of Malabar Hill. 
 
CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 A NAUGHTY DAT : THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 
 
 THE worst of it was Judy planned it all out 
 in her pretty, frowsly little head, just 
 how naughty she meant to be. And that was 
 the way she always thought and spoke of it 
 afterwards, as her " naughty day." 
 
 It must not be supposed that because Judy 
 appears to act with a good deal of freedom, 
 that she was not carefully watched and tended. 
 For Mrs. Crinkle knew that it would cost her 
 her place, and keep her out of other good 
 places also if her employer's precious child 
 should come to any harm through her negli- 
 gence. 
 
 No little European, American, or even high 
 caste Indian child is allowed to run off by it- 
 self in India ; this was why Judy knew how 
 
A NAUGHTT BAT: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 143 
 
 important it was to get her father's promise 
 that Yampa should attend her and Perry also 
 out of doors, seeing that she so dreaded having 
 the fussy Meejee constantly close at hand. 
 
 At lessons Madam Wishton had entire con- 
 trol and was not interfered with. At two 
 o'clock Mrs. Crinkle or Meejee knew where 
 Judy was, and very nearly what she was doing. 
 She could roam in the garden with Perry as 
 she chose but always with a servant within call. 
 
 Janlan, the servant who had come when 
 Judy clapped her hands, was often the one to 
 attend her at a httle distance during her walks 
 and frolics in the garden. When Yampa was 
 summoned, Janlan could retire. 
 
 Meejee stiU held sway to a considerable ex- 
 tent in the house. She attended to little 
 "ma'seUe's" toilet, selected her clothes, and 
 being a most beautiful needlewoman made 
 many of her pretty dresses. 
 
 The two parents had been gone more than 
 a week, and each child had received a letter 
 by mail telling how the mountain party were 
 enjoying themselves and that all were well. 
 
144 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 A few days after the Festival of Serpents, a 
 courier, — which means a man that carries 
 messages to and fro from people who are away 
 — came to the Villa Welcome, sajdng that 
 Yampa was to go a day's journey, starting the 
 next morning, and carrjdng some valuable 
 field glasses his master wanted, to a servant 
 who would hasten with them to the mountains. 
 
 At first Judy's eyes went down and she 
 looked very unhappy on hearing of Yampa's 
 errand, which would take htm away a day and 
 a night. Then for some reason the cloud 
 passed away and she was serene again. 
 
 The afternoon before this she had said to 
 Yampa, " Now the next place we want to see, 
 Perry and I, is the Bhendi Bazaar. I peeped 
 in once with papa, but never went way in, but 
 I 've wanted to ever since that peep." 
 
 Yampa answered slowly, " When Missy go 
 to de Bhendi B'zar, she go with her pa^a." 
 
 Perry had gone to the stable to see the 
 ponies in their box stalls, and so did not hear 
 what was said. 
 
 "Why, Yampa," Judy almost whimpered, 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY : THE BHENDI BAZAAE. 145 
 
 " don't turn cross and spoil all our good time, 
 Perry's and mine. Papa said you could take 
 us to places, don't you remember?" 
 
 " Yampa no turn cross, Missy," said the re- 
 spectful old servant in a grieved tone. " Yam- 
 pa glad artake leetle Missy where it right she 
 go. But de hoss b'zar no a place I take her 
 'nless Master Heeks say go. Too many men, 
 too many hosses, too loud talk, all a^stamp 
 an' cry. No, I not take Master Perree nor 
 leetle Missy to de Bhendi place till master say 
 so hesef." 
 
 The fixed look on Yampa's face, and his 
 slow, determined speech made Judy feel sure 
 that it would be of no use to say another word 
 about his going to the bazaar where every 
 kind of a valuable horse was to be seen and 
 could be traded for. 
 
 Into her quick mind darted also a recollec- 
 tion of having asked her papa more than once 
 to take her there, and the answer had been 
 "sometime" or, "when Judy gets a Uttle 
 older." 
 
 The disappointed child did not behave very 
 
 10 
 
146 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 prettily when. Yampa so quietly and decidedly 
 refused to do as she wished. She was too 
 used to having her own way, so up she 
 jumped, flirted her hght skirts about, and said 
 pettishly, 
 
 " Oh weU, Yampa, if you don't want us to 
 have a good time, Perry and I, you needn't 
 mind doing what I ask, that 's aU." 
 
 "I do anysing that right," repHed the pa- 
 tient Indian. "I no do anysing not right. 
 Leetle Missy must be took good care of." 
 
 Away switched Judy, forgetful of Yampa's 
 wilUng, obhging efforts to please her ever 
 since her papa went away, and glad also that 
 Perry had not heard Yampa's flat refusal. 
 
 There was no particular plan in her mind 
 then, and there was no plan even half formed 
 until after she heard that Yampa was to be 
 absent a night. 
 
 The next afternoon when Mrs. Crinkle 
 asked Judy if Cid was to drive Perry and her- 
 self out after dinner, and whether she or Mee- 
 jee shoiild go with them as one or the other 
 must in Yampa's absence, Judy demurely an- 
 swered "No." 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 147 
 
 And the housekeeper thought that as 
 Yampa was away, the children had chosen to 
 have no drive that afternoon. But Judy had 
 gone herself to the stable, Janlan sauntering 
 on at a little distance, and told Jon, the foot- 
 man who overlooked the grooms, to have her 
 pony-carriage at the far end of the shrubbery 
 directly after dinner. 
 
 The child knew her order was sure to be 
 obeyed and no questions asked at the stable. 
 Silence she also laiew was the safest thing in 
 helping to carry out her naughty plan. 
 
 There was but httle excuse for Judy on her 
 naughty day, yet there were two things it 
 might be kinder to mention. And for one, 
 the little girl had a very, very strong will, a 
 good thing in anyone either old or young if 
 it only leads in the right way, but when it 
 leads in the wrong way, oh dear, what trou- 
 ble, and what a pity ! 
 
 Then for another thing, Judy had no 
 mother, and no matter how kind she may be, 
 no housekeeper in the wide, wide world, nor 
 anyone else who is paid for her care, is likely 
 
148 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 to have the love, the watchfuLiess, and the 
 influence of a child's own tender mother. 
 
 Yet Judy's papa was one of the kindest and 
 most indulgent of parents, and that was one 
 great reason why she never should have had 
 her naughty day. 
 
 She managed cleverly, this self-willed little 
 maid. The pony-carriage was at the shrub- 
 bery before dinner was over but out of sight 
 from the dining-room windows. 
 
 Judy had asked Perry to be sure not to say 
 a word about driving that evening, but to fol- 
 low her after dinner exactly as though they 
 were going into the garden. 
 
 Mrs. Crinkle saw Janlan swing lazily along 
 at the rear of the skipping pair. Skipping 
 indeed, had she but known it! The ponies 
 were tossing their manes and pawing the peb- 
 bles beyond the thick shrubbery. Jon was at 
 their heads, Judy in one of her lightest, gay- 
 est moods. 
 
 " Jon," she said carelessly, " please go tell 
 Cid Mrs. Crinkle does not care to go out to- 
 night." 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY : THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 149 
 
 The servant looked surprised but turned 
 without a word, only the usual low bow, but 
 Miss Judy had got rid of him very easily. 
 Janlan stroUed in sight. 
 
 " Jiunp in quick ! " she said to Perry in a 
 tone of authority, which means a tone to be 
 obeyed. 
 
 "Janlan," she said chippily, as the Hindu 
 came up to the little carriage, " please teU Cid 
 that Mr. Wakefield wiU drive after we get 
 down to the posts." 
 
 She knew poor Janlan would only half un- 
 derstand her, but would make Cid and Jon 
 think that some gentlemen was to take the 
 lines when they reached the posts at the en- 
 trance. This report would be given Mrs. 
 Crinkle when it became late and the lad and 
 little lady were missed. 
 
 So no one in the house or outside of it had 
 any idea of what Judy intended to do, or was 
 doings 
 
 But Perry was very ill at ease. Had the 
 boy really known what Judy meant to do, he 
 would never have helped her in her daring 
 
150 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 exploit. But he did not, and Kttle Miss Judy 
 had not meant he should. Some things Perry- 
 had said made her afraid to tempt him too far, 
 but once they were off, she thought in her 
 easy way, she could "make things all right 
 with Perry Wakefield." 
 
 Judy had gathered up the strong, embossed 
 lines in her firm little hands and given the 
 ponies their heads in great style. She could 
 drive. Many the time her father had sat be- 
 side her smiling to himself with great satisfac- 
 tion at the steady, skillful way she would " let 
 out the off horse" and "take in the nigh 
 one," using with amusing glibness the terms 
 she had heard used either by himself or by 
 some of the men. 
 
 Now as she let the ponies scud at a risky 
 pace down the graded roads, she felt rather 
 than saw that Perry was looking at her in 
 quiet surprise. 
 
 It was a little early, and the crowd of car- 
 riages not what it would be later, but as 
 she was obliged to steady the ponies to a 
 slower gait. Perry asked in a tone that Judy 
 thought " preachy," 
 
A NAUGHTT DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 151 
 
 " I say, Judy, will this do ? " 
 
 " Will what do ? " she asked, jerking around 
 toward him with a suddenness that sent a 
 mass of gold-bronze hair fluffing about her 
 face in a very bewitching, becoming manner. 
 
 " Why, this running away without anyone 
 to take care of us." 
 
 " This is n't running away. Janlan saw us, 
 and I left a message ; oh yes, and you had 
 better drive now, you know I said Mr. Wake- 
 field would drive," and Judy giggled as she 
 bobbed the lines over toward the Tm.easy boy. 
 
 " No, thank you," said Perry. " I am no 
 driver. Papa keeps a horse, but I have never 
 driven much, and I could n't manage the way 
 you do. Where you going, Judy ? " 
 
 "Well now I'U tell you," said the Uttle 
 maid, lajdng her hands in her lap and holding 
 the ponies loosely as they were stepping dain- 
 tily as cats, lifting high their hoofs but not 
 hurrjdng. 
 
 " You see, the Bhendi Bazaar is one of the 
 most remark'blest places in all Bombay. 
 Every kind of a horse you ever heard of is 
 
152 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 there. I went to the bazaar with my own 
 papa once," — Judy smiled beamingly on 
 Perry, so pleasant was the tale to tell, — " but 
 papa could n't stay but a minute that day be- 
 cause he was in a hurry, but ever since then, 
 I have wanted dret'fly to get in there. Papa 
 would take us I know if he was here, but he 
 can't because he 's away, and Yampa can't 
 either because he is away too : " — Oh naugh- 
 ty Judy ! 
 
 " But I wanted partic'larly to come to-night, 
 and I '11 tell you what we must do. I have a 
 handful of silver bits, and plenty of little 
 Arabs wiU be ready to hold the ponies, then 
 we can slip into the bazaar, and act just as 
 though our servant was close by, and no one 
 will know." 
 
 Perry was but a boy with all a boy's love 
 of adventure, and hke Judy he admired a fine 
 horse as had his father before him. And 
 then he had heard the name of this place be- 
 fore. It was on the veranda of the Villa 
 Welcome that he now remembered a gentle- 
 man had spoken about a new lot of Arabian 
 
A NAUGHTY day: THE BHENBI BAZAAR. 153 
 
 horses that had been received at the Bhendi 
 Bazaar. Yet he thought of his father, and 
 said rather doubtfully, 
 
 " I am afraid we are doing wrong, Judy. I 
 am older than you, and I am afraid my father 
 will say I ought to have made you go back. 
 Are you ever allowed to go about alone ? " 
 
 "Not gen' rally," admitted Judy, with a 
 grown-up air. "But now Yampa's gone — " 
 oh, not for anything would Judy have had 
 Perry know what the old servant had said. 
 That would have sent Perry back, and she felt 
 it. "Yes, now Yampa has gone," she re- 
 peated, " I can tell papa how it was when he 
 gets home, and I shall go now I have started. 
 
 " You are older than I am," she added, 
 " and can take care of me, but it wouldn't be 
 very nice to let me go in aU alone, and — I 
 am going, Perry Wakefield ! " 
 
 That settled it. If Judy was determined, it 
 certainly would be shameful to let her go to 
 such a place alojie. He could tell his papa 
 truthfully that he thought he ought to look 
 after her when she had made up her mind to 
 go whether he did or not. 
 
154 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 So he was quite as gay as Judy herself by 
 the time the ponies were given over to the 
 care of a tall Arab boy, and Judj and he 
 slipped inside the great bazaar. 
 
CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 A NAUGHTY DAT: THE BHENDI BAZAAB. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 THE moment Judy found herself really in- 
 side the famous bazaar, everything else 
 was forgotten. Had she been a timid child 
 the very spaciousness and magnificence of the 
 place, the loud cries of the venders, joined 
 with the strange, new feeUng of being un- 
 guarded by an older person would have been 
 confusing and terrifying. 
 
 When she turned to Perry it was plain to 
 see that the sight delighted him. No wonder; 
 they were in the most splendid horse-market 
 of all the far East. 
 
 Judy sHpped her soft little hand into Perry's 
 and pulled him along. All through the great 
 place were stalls with horses inside, fastened 
 
156 A LITTLE AMEBICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 by showy chains to rings drilled into the solid 
 sides of the boxes. The owners were close by 
 hoping to sell the spirited animals that were 
 groomed until their sides shone like polished 
 glass. 
 
 Arabs in the showiest of dress lingered be- 
 side their chestnut, mottled, iron-grey or coal- 
 black steeds, making both horse and man like 
 pictures in the white Ught streaming in at the 
 high windows. 
 
 At one inclosure the children stood a long 
 time, before a row of graceful little Arabian 
 horses whose slender bodies showed the veins 
 crossing each other along the shining flanks. 
 
 Scarcely knowing that he did so, Perry took 
 in the fine points of the faultless animals ; the 
 small heads, short, pointed ears, beautifully 
 arched necks, sensitive nostrils, straight Umbs, 
 delicate fetiocks and high hoofs. 
 
 "Oh, aren't they perfect ! " he exclaimed, 
 and at the instant he heard a short laugh and 
 turned to see at his side a shght, weU-built 
 Arab, a bright turban on his head, a gaily fig- 
 ured waist well open at the throat, and wide 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAK. 157 
 
 bloomer trousers reaching to the ankles mak- 
 ing up his attire. 
 
 He gibbered a few words in his own lan- 
 guage not one of which Perry could under- 
 stand until at last he said, " Mount, mount," 
 and caught hold of the boy as if to toss him 
 to the back of one of the prettiest of the little 
 horses that had on a beautiful saddle tiifted 
 and fringed, all ready for some young rider. 
 
 The boy drew back. " Na ? " said the Arab, 
 and flinging himself into the saddle, the showy 
 horse began a kind of dance, nothing more 
 than a jump, a side curvet, a mock canter, an 
 up and down trot, yet showing the training 
 that had fitted him for a prime saddle horse. 
 
 At a slap on the side he crouched so that 
 the man stepped to the floor as easily as if 
 from a shallow step. Judy stood looking on 
 with a face fuU of admiration, and suddenly 
 seizing her, the man tossed her to the back of 
 the beautiful creature handing her the lines 
 and whistling softly. 
 
 Judy was not afraid, but kept her seat 
 bravely while the little animal repeated the 
 
158 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 jumping, curvetting, cantering, and trotting 
 the length of his chain. It all seemed to in- 
 toxicate the Httle maid, and as the horse set- 
 tled down for her to dismount she said to 
 Perry, her eyes sparkhng with pleasure, 
 
 " I mean to make papa Hicks buy me that 
 horse ! " 
 
 The magic word " buy " was one the Arab 
 caught quickly. Judy's fine dress and fair 
 skin, and Perry's gentlemanly appearance 
 showed them the children of Europeans, al- 
 ways looked upon as nabobs or rich men, by 
 the swarthy, low caste men of Bombay. 
 
 The Arab followed them crying, "Buy J 
 buy ! buy ! " and holding up his fingers try- 
 ing eagerly to make them understand for how 
 much the horse would be sold. 
 
 Perry said, " No ! no ! no ! " with aU the 
 decision he could, trying his best to get rid of 
 the troublesome fellow. 
 
 Only when he hurried Judy way beyond the 
 stall, waving the man ofE all the time could 
 they escape his loud cries and signs. 
 
 " We must not have another word to say to 
 
A NAUGHTY DAT: THE BHENDI BAZAAE. 159 
 
 one of these men," Perry said, when at last 
 the Arab had to go back to his horses. " They 
 must not find out we are alone either or we 
 might get into a fine scrape. But see, isn't 
 that splendid ! " 
 
 A space had been roped ofE where the stalls 
 were more close to the sides of the building, 
 leaving a wide area for exercising or showing 
 off the horses. A number of Persians in the 
 showiest of dress, more gorgeous than that of 
 the Arabs were preparing to exhibit some of 
 their trained steeds. 
 
 These men wore black velvet turbans shaped 
 like coronets with silver spangles gleaming all 
 over them. Their tunics of yellow figured 
 silk and baggy trousers of pure white, were 
 offset by black shining boots with red tops. 
 They were Hke briUiant pictures as they filed 
 into the ring, each leading by the bridle a 
 powerful horse called the Turkoman. With 
 one exception they were the tallest, strongest 
 horses in all the great bazaar, and carried 
 their long bodies with a high, haughty tread, 
 as if knowing well their great strength, speed, 
 and power of endurance. 
 
160 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 These were the animals that could travel 
 their seventy-five miles a day easily, or even 
 more, and yet carry a firm hoof and proud, 
 high crest. They were without saddles and 
 sported no trappings whatever except a light 
 bridle and either red or yellow ribbons twisted 
 into their long manes and tails. 
 
 The owners mounted about a dozen of them 
 then started in line, the horses running neck 
 and neck with a swiftness and evenness that 
 made Judy turn almost giddy. It was like a 
 flash of mere showy mounted figures, and fly- 
 ing shapes, with gleams of color, and a regu- 
 lar pounding of heavy hoofs. 
 
 Up and down the course they raced, never 
 breaking or slackening speed untU Judy could 
 watch them no longer, and Perry was getting 
 dizzy when the race ended. 
 
 There was a great clapping of hands and 
 various peculiar cries as the great creatures 
 stood stiU, not even panting after their vigor- 
 pus run, and Perry noticed that no one seemed 
 more pleased than a distinguished looking 
 man standing before them. 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 161 
 
 "Oh, that is a rajah," whispered Judy, 
 " Papa and I often see him when we are out 
 driving, and I don't believe but what these 
 are some of his servants following behind him. 
 Perhaps he is going to buy some horses. 
 They aU have the best ones they can find. 
 
 "Papa told me once that a great rajah of 
 Calcutta had hundreds of splendid horses in 
 his stables, and as many as thirty elephants 
 he used for hunting. He had trained leopards 
 too, great fierce creatures ! Did you know 
 that cats were leopards way back ? " 
 
 Perry said yes, he once saw that in his 
 school reader. 
 
 The rajah was interested as a boy in watch- 
 ing and talking about the various horses. He 
 wore a saris, simply a handsome piece of cash- 
 mere, caught up in loose, graceful drapings, 
 fastened in places by pins with gold chains 
 attached, and having a diamond or pearl send- 
 ing out gleams of light from the buckles here 
 and there. On his head was a mass of fine 
 silk twisted up into turban shape, and this too 
 was made to fit with shimmering, jewelled 
 11 
 
162 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 pins. His long, silky hair fell over tte saris, 
 and on his satin sandals were buckles of gold. 
 
 As the little lad and lass, charmed and half 
 bewildered, wandered on, hand in hand, look- 
 ing into wide, clean staUs where men, always 
 in brilliant costmne, watched and tended their 
 brightreyed, beautiful charges, the crowd in- 
 creased, and they picked their way more and 
 more slowly. 
 
 There were not only various breeds of Arab 
 and Turkoman horses, but there were shaggy 
 ponies and smooth ones. There were horses 
 of moderate size but almost astonishing 
 strength called the Uzbak, and strongest and 
 most powerful of all was the immense Tartar 
 horse called the Kholand. These are the por- 
 ter horses of India, used very generally in 
 transporting goods, and valuable because of 
 their great usefulness. 
 
 Time was passing far more rapidly than the 
 runaways were aware of. Judy's natural 
 fondness for any fine animal, a feeling that 
 she could rove about at wiU, and the flashing 
 of electric lights which had suddenly illumi- 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 163 
 
 nated the bazaar, all lent glamour to the busy, 
 stirring scene. 
 
 The place was so crowded now that Judy 
 and Perry had to get quite near the boxes in 
 order to see the horses inside. The names of 
 the breeds were painted on arches above the 
 stalls or boxes, so it was easy to know the 
 kind they were looking at. 
 
 Before a great box stall of Argomaks they 
 paused delighted. There stood beautiful crea- 
 taies of great height and with necks curved 
 like a swan's. Their intelligent eyes seemed 
 almost human in the softness and kindness of 
 expression. 
 
 The owner seeing their pleased looks tried 
 to teU something of their quahties and race. 
 But Uttle use. Only two words could they 
 understand. One was " Mar-har-rar-jah," the 
 other " moneys." 
 
 That was nearly enough to teU the story of 
 the fine thoroughbreds' having been admired 
 by some rajah and paid for with much money. 
 
 Last of all the children stopped before a 
 stall like a chamber for size, where fastened 
 
164 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 by strong cliains, stood strange, frightened, 
 exquisite animals called by queer names : 
 Trapan, Musin, and Muss. They were wild 
 horses with senses so acute or sharp, they 
 could both hear, smell, and see much more 
 quickly than most of their kind. 
 
 It was fascinating yet almost painful to 
 watch them. Their polished sides would 
 quiver with fright as people passed by, and 
 huddled close with heads thrown across the 
 neck or back of a comrade, their great dewy 
 eyes would seem to implore the people to be 
 gone, or else in mercy to let them fly back to 
 their own wild pasturage. 
 
 No one but the owners could approach them. 
 Hoofs would fly in the air, loud whinnies of 
 fear would rise shrilly, and some woTild even 
 fall helpless in cruel terror if strangers per- 
 sisted in venturing too near. 
 
 All at once Perry looked around in surprise. 
 So bound up had he been in noticing these 
 fine, dainty, terrified creatures and their kind 
 masters, he had not noticed how mixed and 
 not altogether pleasing in appearance the 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHEKDI BAZAAK. 165 
 
 throng had become that was fairly shutting 
 them in. 
 
 Now at a glance he saw Hindu, Persian, 
 Greek, Jew, Armenian, Chinamen, Bengalese, 
 Negro, Australian and others. Men half 
 clothed, men overdressed, barefooted, san- 
 dalled, rough and intelUgent, aU chattering, 
 talking with hands and signs, but most of 
 them eager and excited over the bargains they 
 hoped to make. 
 
 " I think we ought to go now," he said, and 
 Judy who had followed Perry's gaze around 
 and saw in it the wonder and half shrinking 
 of the boy not used to so motley a throng, 
 said more carelessly, 
 
 " Yes, perhaps we better, it must be getting 
 late." 
 
 It was going to be difficult to press their 
 way back and Perry saw it. He noticed un- 
 easily too, that two sharp-eyed men seemed to 
 be watching him. He wished himself and 
 Judy safely at the villa. But Judy should not 
 think him a coward. Anything but that ! 
 
 " Let 's get over on that side where there 
 
166 A LITTLE AMEEICAIT GIKL IKT INDIA. 
 
 are fewer people," he said. " We can go back 
 easier over there." 
 
 " All right," replied Judy, and she set her 
 little delicate self to pushing and pulling to- 
 ward the other side. 
 
 Perry felt siu-e that the two men were fol- 
 lowing close. There were people in great 
 numbers everywhere, but on a further side 
 which the children were now struggling to 
 reach, there was not much of a crowd. 
 
 All at once one of the men came close to 
 Perry and held out a grimy hand. "Buck- 
 sheesh ! " he said in a low, harsh voice, " buck- 
 sheesh ! " 
 
 Perry flung away from him, dropping 
 Judy's hand as he did so. Judy flew up and 
 linked her arm in his. Then the other fellow 
 said more loudly to Judy, 
 
 " Buchsheesh, lil ma'selle can takka no far- 
 far, bucksheesh." 
 
 "I've no bucksheesh for you," said Judy 
 spunkily, but cHnging more closely to Perry. 
 
 One or two others close by knowing by in- 
 stinct that the well-dressed children were by 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 167 
 
 themselves pressed closely. " Bucksheesh," 
 they demanded in low, snarling voices. 
 
 Perry tried to look unconcerned as if not 
 caring for the rude fellowsr Judy looked 
 around and called, " Ayah, ayah ! " 
 
 Her little ruse or preterffse did no good. 
 
 "Ayah, no ayah," said the black-bearded 
 fellow who had first asked for bucksheesh or 
 money, and was quick to see that no nurse was 
 at hand. Poor httle Judy would have been 
 glad enough to have had outspoken Meejee 
 beside her just then, she would soon have sent 
 the meddlesome man about his business. 
 
 But the little girl held her head up bravely. 
 She knew too much to hand out a single " bit." 
 The least show of having money would only 
 end with her giving up the last penny. They 
 might even demand her pretty gold necklace 
 and jewelled sash buckle. 
 
 Perry wished he had kept to the more 
 crowded part of the bazaar. The people in 
 this section were rougher, bolder, and there 
 were fewer of them. He felt himself tremble 
 as the persistent men kept close, and Judy was 
 
168 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIBL IN INDIA, 
 
 ready to cry with sheer vexation. She really 
 was not much alarmed until the rascally fellow 
 beside her tapped her arm smartly and re- 
 peated, 
 
 " Bucksheesh ! ma'seUe no takka farfar, 
 buchsheesh ! " 
 
 " It 's just because we are alone," she said 
 to Perry, " but they 'U soon find out that not 
 one tiny sUver bit will they get from me ! " 
 
 The low, guarded call for money was being 
 repeated by more than one or two dark fol- 
 lowers, and Perry was receiving an insolent 
 tap every instant to bring him to terms. 
 
 The boldest fellow of them all suddenly gave 
 a sly pull at Judy's necklace and she felt in- 
 chned to scream on looking about with startled 
 eyes and seeing no way of escape, when all at 
 once a voice roared close behind her that, sharp 
 and commanding as it was, smote on her ear 
 hke the voice of a rescuing angel. 
 
 "Back a' o' ye! Clear oot ye meeserable 
 rascols ! 'Tis a gret time o' day I 'm theenkin' 
 when ye moost pesther an' broobeat a coople 
 o' cheeldrin! Back th' whool pact o' ye! 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 169 
 
 Faix, an if 'tis the weight o' me twa feests 
 ye 'd like to be feelin' 'tis rapping at ye I '11 
 be in a seecond o' time fit ter brek yer worth' 
 less skools ! " 
 
 The greedy, cowardly men feeling their 
 " worthless skulls " in danger, were prompt in 
 sneaking quickly away. 
 
 Judy had not realized at first whom the new 
 tones belonged to. She only felt with a 
 mighty sense of relief that they meant strong, 
 swift help. 
 
 Now her rescuing friend went on in jolly 
 fashion, 
 
 " Hoots ! Is 't deed an buried thot iv'ry ser- 
 vant o' th' Vella Weelcome fin's imsel that 
 neither hide nor hair o' 'em is about onny 
 wha ' ? " Coom now' bairnies, 'tis oot o' this 
 we '11 gang, but, bless me starrs ! How cooms 
 it ye 'er here a' this time o' nicht aloone ? " 
 
 "I — I — was naughty," confessed down- 
 crested little Judy, and in so sorry a tone for 
 her that the Scotchman's kind heart was 
 touched at once. He stooped and took her 
 up in his strong arms. 
 
170 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 "I ran away," she said, putting one arm 
 around Mr. MacKentric's neck, "and made 
 them all think someone was coming with me. 
 I cheated Perry too, he did n't like it when he 
 found out what I meant to do, but he was 
 too — too mannish to let me come on alone. I 
 wanted so much to see the horse bazaar, but I 
 shall never, never run off that way again as 
 long as I hve ! " 
 
 "Don't Kttle lassie, don't," said Mr. Mac 
 Kentric in so kindly, caressing a tone, that 
 warm-hearted Judy felt that she loved him, and 
 the arm- about his neck pressed a httle more 
 closely. 
 
 " I wudna thry veesiting a plaace hke th' 
 Bhendee markeet unteel I wor a bigger lass. 
 'Twor e'etin ye oop cloothes an' a', and Mas- 
 ther Perry too, th' veehns wud a been, an there 
 hadna coom a mon to devairt them." 
 
 " I'm sure I never want to try that again," 
 said Judy, and in her humbled mood she 
 added, " papa must have thought I was too 
 little to go there, for he put me off whenever 
 I spoke of it." Then her tones altered a little 
 as she said. 
 
A NAUGHTY DAY: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 171 
 
 " I want to tell my papa all about it myself. 
 I shall tell papa. But they won't know all 
 about how naughty I was at home if you '11 go 
 back with us, would you — please ? " 
 
 " Hoots now ! An wot do ye theenk aboot 
 it ? Wud it be a mon o' my heft wud hev a 
 wee leddy askin' 'im twict wud he see her 
 home ? Wud it noo ? Thank ye fo' th' in- 
 veetation. 'Tis mesel wull accepit it wi 
 pleesure." 
 
 Judy darted ahead as they left the bazaar 
 and gave her silver to the boy who stood by 
 the ponies at the spot where she had left them, 
 and her Scottish friend was amused at the 
 little maid's wish to pay her own charges, so 
 pretended not to notice. 
 
 He took the front seat of the little carriage 
 and drove steadily along, feeling sorry mean- 
 time at the quiet, pensive air of the usually 
 flyaway little daughter of his friend. 
 
 Mrs. Crinkle, who had only been able to 
 gather from Janlan's broken account that 
 someone had asked Judy and Perry to drive 
 out, and that Judy in a httle fit of independ- 
 
172 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 ence had chosen not to tell her, was anxiously 
 waiting on the veranda at the late hour as the 
 Httle party drove up. 
 
 " Hoots, Madam ! An' I 've brought ye th' 
 weans a' richt," cheerily called out Mr. Mac 
 Kentric as the children jumped out. 
 
 "Janlan," said Judy to the man who was 
 already at the ponies' heads, and speaking 
 with more dignity than was quite natural, 
 "Janlan, please get in and drive Mr. Mac 
 Kentric home." 
 
 " Only far as the trams," said the gentle- 
 man. 
 
 Judy said " good-night " very gently, then 
 suddenly threw her tall friend a kiss, while 
 Perry saluted hke a Uttle gentleman. Mr. 
 Mac Kentric called back " Auravoor," and was 
 gone. 
 
 "Miss Judy," said Mrs. Crinkle in an in- 
 jured tone, " the next time you go out driv- 
 ing without one of the servants, I want to 
 know who is going to take you. I have been 
 very anxious indeed to-night." 
 
 Judy replied meekly, " Yes, Mrs. Crinkle, I 
 will." 
 
A NAUGHTY DAT: THE BHENDI BAZAAR. 173 
 
 Then she bade Perry good-night and went 
 up to the waiting Meejee, and the naughtiest 
 day in Judy's jolly little hfe thus far, was 
 ended. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A BIT OF HISTORY AND AN INVITATION. 
 
 THE next morning after breakfast Judy 
 led the way with Perry to the morning- 
 room. Meejee reminded her on the way that 
 Madam Wishton would arrive in half an hoiu", 
 and her hair must be arranged soon. So 
 there was only time to say softly to Perry, 
 
 " We won't tell a soul about last night tiU 
 papa comes, then I 'm going to tell my own 
 papa just what I did. I think I most deceived 
 Janlan and Mrs. Crinkle. I heard papa say 
 once that one of the worst things about a 
 good many Indian servants was that they 
 were very deceiving. And I know papa 
 Hicks would feel awful bad if he knew that 
 all he has in the world could be deceiving." 
 
 Perry wanted to laugh at Judy's dreadful 
 
A BIT OF HISTORY AND AN INVITATION. 175 
 
 air in talking of herself, but he only began 
 generously, 
 
 "I was most as much to blame as you — " 
 but Judy interrupted him : 
 
 " Now don't you go to pretending that. Per- 
 ry Wakefield ! It was me was every mite to 
 blame, and I shall tell papa Hicks so. Now I 
 must run, but I'U be at the baobab tree at 
 two o'clock." 
 
 When two o'clock came it found the chil- 
 dren at the great tree and Yampa, who had 
 returned, sitting at their feet. 
 
 " Could we go riding on the Bycullah road ? " 
 asked Judy. 
 
 " No, sure ! " said Yampa. " I no go ar-By- 
 cullah road mysef, not with many mans." 
 
 "Then I'U tell you where we must go, 
 Yampa, very soon. Here I am seven years 
 old, and I shaU be eight pretty soon and I've 
 never seen but only one Nautch dance. Papa 
 took me then but it was so long ago I've most 
 forgotten about it, only I know it was splendid, 
 and I want Perry to see one soon as he can." 
 
 Yampa shook his head again. " De Nautch 
 
176 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 dance," he said "when it very fine take place 
 at de bung'low of some high caste mans, very 
 rich, and at de gret party. Gentlemans get 
 invite, but no servant get in. No, no, Yampa 
 no can fetch dat." 
 
 " Oh dear," groaned Judy, " then we'll have 
 to wait until papa gets home. I hate waiting 
 for things. Well, that 's aU now, Yampa, ex- 
 cept that Perry and I ydll go to the Esplanade 
 to-night in the barouche." 
 
 The man saluted and moved away. Janlan 
 stood within calUng distance. 
 
 " Do you study history ? " asked Judy. 
 
 " Why yes," Perry rephed, " Don't you ? " 
 
 " Yes, a httle, but papa thought I'd better 
 know about India and Bombay before I studied 
 much about other countries, so I've had little 
 lessons that papa Hicks has taught me him- 
 self. I like the way he tells things, I don't 
 forget them either." 
 
 Perry smiled. " Could you remember about 
 Bombay so as to tell me something about it, 
 Judy?" 
 
 The question with the smile^ seemed so like 
 
A BIT OF HISTOET AND AN INVITATION. 177 
 
 a Kttle challenge, that high-spirited Judy im- 
 mediately began rattling off in lively fashion, 
 meantime roUing her eyes droUy, and swing- 
 ing her feet, 
 
 " Bombay is one of the three great divisions 
 of India, and is named for an old Indian god- 
 dess — I think she must have been a Begmn 
 — called Bombfe. It is ruled by a governor 
 appointed by Queen Victoria, who is also called 
 Empress of India. Its harbor is one of the 
 finest in the world, and the views about the 
 harbor and from parts of Malabar Hill are also 
 among the finest in the world. 
 
 " Ah-um ! Bombay is the most European 
 city in appearance in India. It has belonged 
 to England since 1662. And it is very impor- 
 tant because it was the first large port reached 
 from Europe by the Overland Mail Route by 
 way of — let's see — Aden, the Eed Sea, Suez, 
 and Alexandria. 
 
 " Um-boo ! This route wiU let people travel 
 
 in thirty-six days, what used to take six months. 
 
 Bombay's cotton fields are the richest in India. 
 
 Fifty thousand hands are employed at the 
 
 12 
 
178 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 steam factories all the time, and the spindles 
 and looms are something to make you open 
 your eyes wide, wider, widest." 
 
 Perry laughed audibly but Judy raced on, 
 
 " The Fort was the beginning of the whole 
 city of Bombay. There are first class hotels, 
 and fine pubhc buildings, the University, High 
 Court, Town Hall, Mint, a branch of the great 
 Eastern Bank of England and fifty thousand 
 others. 
 
 "Now that is all — except, Oh! there are 
 fine stations for both British and American 
 missionaries." 
 
 "I think that's an excellent way," said 
 Perry, " to begin by knowing the history of 
 your own city." 
 
 " Island," corrected Judy. 
 
 " Oh yes, island. Now in our pubhc schools 
 we begin way back with the discovery of Amer- 
 ica, then go on with the history of the United 
 States. Do you know who discovered Amer- 
 ica, Judy ? " 
 
 "Christopher Columbus," was the prompt 
 reply. 
 
 "When?" 
 
A BIT OP HISTOKT AND AN INVITATION. 179 
 
 " Poh ! 1492. If you think I don't know 
 anything about American history, you 're mis- 
 taken, Perry "Wakefield." 
 
 " How learn-ed we are ! " said Perry mis- 
 chievously. 
 
 "So are most Americans;" and as she re- 
 plied Judy shot a side-long glance at Perry. 
 Fortunately he kept perfectly sober. 
 
 "I have learned consid'rable about Bom- 
 bay," Judy went on, " from hearing Meejee 
 and Panpan talk. Papa must take us over to 
 Breach Candy some day, it is a lovely suburb 
 on the beach." Then she suddenly giggled, 
 as she said, 
 
 "I knew Yampa wouldn't go driving on 
 the Bycullah road. It's an awful place after 
 ^ou go a little way, chock full of thieves and 
 robbers. Then beyond is the Mazagon road, 
 all swampy, and filled with snakes and ser- 
 pents and all sorts of creatures that bite and 
 sting." 
 
 "What a dreadful pity we couldn't have 
 gone," said Perry. " Only think what a nice 
 way it might have been for us to have got 
 finished up quick ! " 
 
180 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Judy laughed out merrily. Then Meejee 
 came to the edge of the veranda and clapped 
 her hands. Janlan ran for the message, then 
 came running back, bowed low, and handed 
 Judy a card. It bore the name, "Wallace 
 Mac Kentric." 
 
 " Come to call on us and see if we have ran 
 away again," said Judy speaking softly and 
 squeezing her face into one of her funny, si- 
 ' lent laughs. 
 
 " Do men call on boys ? " asked Perry. 
 
 Judy flashed around. "They do when 
 they're 'veesiting' the young ladies they caU. 
 on," she answered in queer imitation of Mr. 
 Mac Kentric's manner of speech. 
 
 "So ye 're a' richt?" asked Judy's caller 
 after gallantly greeting the httle lad and lass. 
 
 "Faix! an' I'm glad oft. I've coom to 
 give ye both an' inveetation in retaim fo' the 
 one ye gave me. Ye wor takin' mesel' to 
 ride, an' I now owe yoursels soom coortesy. 
 A freend of mine, a Parsee of the reechest 
 kind gives a gret party to-morrow nicht, in 
 honoor of the marreege of his son, which took 
 place a week gane by. 
 
A BIT OF HISTORT AND AN INVITATION. 181 
 
 " He sent me three cards, meaning I wor to 
 coom an' bring twa oothers wi' me, an' I 
 weeshed. There'll be a fine Nautch dance, 
 an' I thocht might be leetle Mees Heeks and 
 Masther Wakefield wud enjoy ganging wi' 
 me. 'Tis a bonny sicht." 
 
 " Oh how beautiful ! " exclaimed Judy, 
 clapping her hands. " Why, is n't it funny ? 
 I 've just been teasing Yampa to take us, Per- 
 ry and me, to see some Nautch girls, and he 
 said he couldn't. So I thought we 'd have to 
 wait luitU papa came home." 
 
 " Then ye accepit th' inveetation ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, and thank you — a great many 
 times," Judy said, remembering she ought to 
 be " ladyfied " with so kind a caller. 
 
 It was arranged that Cid should drive the 
 children, and that Meejee should also go as 
 attendant, and that Mr. MacKentric should 
 meet them at the bungalow where the recep- 
 tion was to be given, as it was much too far 
 for him to go for, and then return with, the 
 httle friends he was to escort at the party. 
 
 And so Perry and Judy were overjoyed at 
 
182 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 the prospect of soon seeing the wonderful 
 dancers. And elegant both inside and outside 
 as things were at the Villa Welcome, it was 
 not furnished with the extravagant magnifi- 
 cence of the dwelHng of one of the princely 
 natives. A European would have considered 
 the style too gaudy for good taste and refined 
 ideas. 
 
 Judy easily appeared quite Hke a little lady 
 while Mr. Mac Kentric remained. And as he 
 disappeared in his stylish one-seated carriage, 
 she performed a short dance on her own ac- 
 count, ending with a grand flourish and a 
 merry cry — " Glo-ree f " 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE NAUTCH DANCE. 
 
 JUDY was very lovely indeed the next 
 evening. She was all in white, with a 
 dress of Shanghai gauze over India silk, the 
 softly twisted sash having tassels at the ends 
 of floss silk, embroidered silk stockings and 
 low satin shoes. Her head was unadorned 
 except for the crimply mass of bronze-gold 
 hair which Meejee arranged with great care 
 and skill. 
 
 A brilliant company it was that had already 
 assembled at the spacious bungalow when our 
 httle friends met Mr. Mac Kentric at the en- 
 trance. 
 
 In the wide hall and the ample drawing- 
 rooms gas and "lustres" reflected the various 
 glittering decorations everywhere. Loops of 
 
184 A LITTLE AMERICAN &IRL IN INDIA. 
 
 vines and leaves with a great profusion of 
 flowers twined in them himg from chandelier 
 to chandelier, and across to the corners of the 
 room, where large, showy rosettes in different 
 colored satin concealed the places where they 
 were fastened. 
 
 Costly ornaments from Europe there were 
 in abundance, inlaid tables and cabinets from 
 Japan, the latter filled with carvings and vases 
 from China, and chinaware nearly transparent 
 in its fineness and finish ; priceless laces fine 
 as a cobweb, paintings also brought from Eu- 
 ropean shores, statuary from Italy, and curios 
 from many lands, aU so lavishly displayed as 
 to make the rooms appear like galleries of the 
 fine arts. 
 
 The usual spicy odors and tropical perfumes 
 greeted one at every turn. An orchestra of 
 native musicians was ensconced behind an ar- 
 tificial grotto in the wide entrance hall, which 
 to-night was a broad avenue from the front to 
 the back veranda and to the garden at the 
 rear of the bungalow. 
 
 The deep sweep of lawn before the house 
 
THE NAUTCH DANCE. 185 
 
 with its beds of flowers, fountains and statu- 
 ettes, as well as the vaster garden at the rear 
 were hung with Chinese lanterns and red and 
 blue lights so closely placed that it was light 
 as day all through the compound or grounds. 
 
 Native servants in white tunics and trousers, 
 yellow turbans and yellow sUppers, were con- 
 stantly passing iced drinks in tiny glasses. 
 The refreshments to be served later were to be 
 foxmd in the main dining room, whence they 
 would be carried swiftly and cautiously to the 
 furthermost guest. 
 
 Judy was in her element as passing through 
 the splendidly furnished and lighted rooms, 
 she and Perry were continually being intro- 
 duced by Mr. Mac Kentric to his friends, imtil 
 it seemed to the small maid that he must 
 know nearly everyone they met. 
 
 She said bright, witty little things to her 
 tall friend, sending him off into low bursts of 
 laughter, but Perry was nearly speechless, as 
 was apt to be the case with him midst such 
 strange, interesting scenes. 
 
 Women were in drapings so soft and fine 
 
186 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 that the silks beneath them seemed merely 
 covered with fine threads, gold and sUver 
 fringes often edging the long, ample trains. 
 Diamonds flashed in the coils of dark hair, fan- 
 cifully twisted on the top of the head. Neck- 
 laces of diamonds and pearls, bracelets flashing 
 with rows of precious stones, earrings hanging 
 in long drops and aflame with sparkhng bril- 
 liants, silks and satins looped with ribbons and 
 buckles, sending out long gleams of light from 
 their magnificent jewels, fairly dazzled the 
 eyes of the observant and fascinated boy. 
 
 The men in rich, fight garments, also showed 
 no lack of jewels in high turban, scarf, sash, or 
 sari. Sepoys in regimental dress of red coats 
 set o£E with plenty of gold lace, white trousers 
 and shining dress boots, sashes with gfittering 
 swords at the sides of the officers, gold fringe, 
 epaulettes, orders and rosettes with the blaze 
 of a great diamond in their burning centers 
 added to the glamour of the scene. 
 
 AU these kept the American lad silent, and 
 Judy in her light, chattering mood could not 
 realize how the dazzfing Oriental display af- 
 
THE NAUTCH DAMCE. 187 
 
 f ected the unaccustomed sight of her boy com- 
 panion. As the perfumes now becoming famil- 
 iar blended with all the bewitching surround- 
 ings, Perry again said to himself, 
 
 " It is the East ! It is the East, and no other 
 country in the world can be like it." 
 
 The pretty bride of a week, dusky-favored 
 yet comely, and her young husband also, were 
 clothed with a simplicity one would not have 
 looked for here. The sheer India muslin worn 
 by the young wife was untrimmed except for 
 the exquisite blossoms fastening its loops and 
 folds. Flowers were also in her black hair and 
 circled about her neck. 
 
 The "supper" consisting of many dishes 
 Perry could not possibly have named, together 
 with ices and sherbets, was served on dishes of 
 the finest china, cut glass, silver and even gold. 
 Dishes such as are seldom seen except in the 
 dwelling, and at a banquet, of a Hindu noble- 
 man. 
 
 When a glass or two of cut crystal crashed 
 on the floor, the host at once proceeded to de- 
 clare it nothing, nothing at all but an honor 
 
188 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 that the guest — very Kkely jostled by the 
 crowd — had condescended to break a little 
 dish within his doors. 
 
 No hospitality or courtesy can go beyond 
 that of the intelligent native Indian prince. 
 
 After supper came the great event of the 
 night for Perry and Judy, the Nautch dance. 
 This was to take place at a far portion of an 
 immense room on the third floor, reserved 
 for an entertainment of its kind or for large 
 dances. 
 
 Here again was Eastern magnificence on a 
 generous scale. Splendid Persian rugs of 
 large proportions and richest texture covered 
 the floor except in an extension, really a large 
 alcove where the floor was covered with 
 " tatty " a kind of East Indian matting. 
 
 In this alcove, large as another room, the 
 dance was to be performed, and the tatty made 
 from cuscus grass was smooth and even to the 
 feet of the dancers as a waxed floor. This 
 matting had been moistened at intervals sev- 
 eral times before the dance was to begin, 
 causing it to send out the sweet, pungent 
 smell of the cuscus root. 
 
THE NAUTCH DANCE. 189 
 
 Along the sides of the deep apartments were 
 long mirrors set in superbly carved frames, 
 the reflection from the alcove seeming to mul- 
 tiply the dancers indefinitely. 
 
 Small bamboo seats, no larger than foot^ 
 stools were packed closely together, but even 
 then many of the men stood about or sat cross- 
 legged while watching their favorite dance. 
 A space at one side of the alcove formed a 
 bower of shrubs and plants conceahng the 
 Nautch girls untU it came the time for each 
 to appear. 
 
 The music was that of zithers, viols, tom- 
 toms and guitars, but played softly to admit 
 hearing a more tinkling music. 
 
 Presently a dark, bright-eyed girl sprang 
 from the bower. Her short, full dress of crim- 
 son silk was covered with silver stars; her 
 long red stockings and satin slippers of red 
 were also spangled all over with stars of sil- 
 ver. Her heavy hair hanging to her waist 
 showed silver spangles aU through its meshes, 
 and a large star glittered above her forehead. 
 About her wrists and ankles were small sUver 
 
190 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 bells, and as she danced with a slow, waltz-Uke 
 measure she made the bells tinkle perfectly 
 to the time. 
 
 In a moment out flitted a second girl, dark 
 and clear with lustrous eyes. Her black hair 
 tied with yellow ribbons hung loose from the 
 neck, and was dotted with spangles of gold. 
 The dress of black gauze over yellow siLk was 
 embroidered with gold thread ; the black silk 
 stockings and black satin shppers were also 
 embroidered with threads of gold. 
 
 Then came another, a dark, witch-hke crear 
 ture aU in pink, with diamonds ghnting from 
 hair, arms and neck. 
 
 Then a rose-colored fairy of dusky hue, with 
 rubies and roses twined all about her, flung 
 into the enchanted ring. 
 
 Next came a maiden all in white with pearls 
 that gleamed in her hair, and some kind of 
 mock-pearls that glistened like ivory aU about 
 her short, full skirts. White satin rosettes 
 lent their shining gleam to her spotless dress. 
 The strange, alluring contrast of her dark, 
 smooth skin, flashing eyes, and the snowy 
 
THE NAUTCH DANCE. 191 
 
 whiteness of her glimmering dress brought 
 forth a burst of applause as she tripped hke a 
 dark seraph in white, to her place midst the 
 others. 
 
 Around the wrists and ankles of each dancer 
 were the tinkling bells, gilt ones on the girl 
 in yellow and black, the rest of silver, and as 
 they all fell into time in a kind of preliminary 
 movement, Judy whispered to Perry that her 
 throat hurt again, and she guessed it was 
 " getting swelled." 
 
 The graceful creatures made no sound on 
 the smooth matting, and the instruments 
 hushed themselves to a soft murmur bringing 
 out all the more clearly the music of the sing- 
 ing bells. 
 
 Suddenly the girl in crimson silk and silver 
 stars, threw out from a large roll held in her 
 hands, an end of satin ribbon, striped in all 
 the colors of the rainbow, and tossing it over 
 her head, twined it in loose loops about her 
 arms and waist, dancing all the time. 
 
 Then she dexterously — which means with 
 a good aim — threw the roU to the fairy in 
 
192 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 black guaze, and yellow spangles. In a trice, 
 she too had skillfully looped the many-colored 
 ribbon about her arms and waist, the same as 
 the first dancer had done. 
 
 Then the sylph in pink and rubies was twin- 
 ing herself about with the gay loops, and soon 
 the girl in white caught the roll, decking her- 
 self with ribbon while dancing, and one or two 
 others who had joined the magic circle looped 
 the ribbon in the same way. 
 
 The roU dwindled as its many yards became 
 encircled about the fantastic figures, graceful 
 as swans and beautiful as nymphs. Poor Judy 
 caught at her throat again as the bird-like 
 creatures spread wide their skirts and ex- 
 tended their arms with the rich, striped rib- 
 bon galore, then grasping each the arm of an- 
 other began forming fancy figures, the sweet 
 beUs tinkhng, the myriad jewels and spangles 
 flashing, the rainbow colors intertwining, all 
 to regular time, and making new figures at 
 every few turns. 
 
 At length the grand figure of all was reached 
 as, formed in a Greek cross they danced noise- 
 
THE NAUTCH DANCE. 193 
 
 lessly on, the gorgeous ribbon held aloft from 
 the arm of each. The mirrors caught and 
 reflected in scores of almost blinding flashes 
 and gleams the fantastic, faultless movements, 
 and a loud burst of applause was fairly wrung 
 from the delighted company. 
 
 As this first dance ended, Judy was glad to 
 take a glass of cold lemonade, and Perry 
 refreshed himself with sparkHng soda. 
 
 " Hoots ! an' thot beats oor dancing a' to 
 nothing, eh, sweethearrut ? " exclaimed Mr. 
 Mac Kentric and he touched caressingly Ju- 
 dy's little nervous hands. 
 
 " Oh, I almost screamed out loud once," an- 
 nounced that young lady in an unsteady voice. 
 " I don't care," she added hastily, " you looked 
 sort of cryey yourself. Perry Wakefield ! " 
 
 " An wor it greetin' ye wud be ? " said Mr. 
 Mac Kentric between sips of tart, yet sweet, 
 drink of Indian concoction. " Weel, weel ! 
 an' did n't I roar mesel hoarse onct on a time, 
 wen me moother tookit me to a meelitary con- 
 cert ! Faix, an 'twas a jolly howlin' I set oop, 
 they wor glad to get quit o' me the hull hoose 
 13 
 
194 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 fu'. I mind it weel, but I nivir to tHs day hev 
 been a bit ashamed o' t. 
 
 " The lad or th' lass as cud stan' a' soorts o' 
 things an make nivir a sigh nor moan has no 
 gret hearrut, an' is noo th' lad or lass fo' me. 
 Greet ye on sweethearrut, 'twiU do ye gude." 
 
 It had grown warm in the crowded room, 
 and servants entered bearing great silver 
 flagons filled with rose-water with which they 
 sprinkled the heads and faces of the guests, 
 yet adroitly avoiding wetting the rich gar- 
 ments worn. The coohng drops felt deh- 
 ciously and the sweet perfume was not too 
 heavy to be refreshing. 
 
 The next dance was with long strings of 
 green interspersed with flowers, the dancers 
 all arrayed in pure white. It was exquisitely 
 beautiful, if anything more so than the more 
 brilliant one of many colors, though simpler 
 in some respects. 
 
 The scene was perfect, the guitars and other 
 instruments murmuring so low that the tink- 
 ling of silver bells led chiefly the time, as the 
 light feet moved in slow, majestic measure. 
 
THE NAUTCH DANCE. 195 
 
 and the fluttering white creatures seemed like 
 fairies robed about with vines and flowers. 
 
 Judy's Httle shoulders rose and fell percep- 
 tibly, as with keen dehght and a little too much 
 emotion she watched every motion of the beau- 
 tiful Nautch girls, and Mr. Mac Kentric patted 
 her little arm in kindly sjnnpathy and whis- 
 pered mischievously, 
 
 " Gin ye hae ta geeve oop, ye can fa' richt 
 oover agin me." 
 
 This made Miss Judy vow within herself 
 that she would not " gie oop " nor did she, but 
 every moment was enjoyed. 
 
 The dancing would last nearly all night, and 
 as Mr. Mac Kentric knew it would be impru- 
 dent to keep his little friends out much longer 
 he proposed that they should find the host and 
 say good night. 
 
 " Is it eleven ? " asked Judy. " I was out 
 one night with papa until eleven." 
 
 " Faix then ! an 'tis a gude time ye 've been 
 hevin," said the Scotchman. " The nex time 
 th' clock speaks 'twill not stop shoort o' 
 twalve." 
 
196 A LITTLE AMEBIC AN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " Oh, Perry," said Judy with a merry little 
 push and twitter, " its 'most twelve o'clock. 
 Is n't it fun to be out so late ? " 
 
 Their indulgent guardian seeing how loth 
 the little visitors were to leave the beautiful 
 scene they might not soon look upon again, 
 allowed them to see the first movement of an- 
 other dance. 
 
 In this the dancers had arrayed themselves 
 in fluted skirts which they drew out like fans, 
 and dancing in rows they had the appearance 
 of one rolling, billowy mass of fluttering fluted- 
 robed, animated fans. The effect was quite 
 amusing. 
 
 Then after some delay, good nights were ex- 
 changed, and Meejee was summoned. The 
 children roamed through the gorgeously fur- 
 nished chambers of the second story, found 
 their few wraps with Meejee's assistance, bade 
 adieu to their good friend whose kindness had 
 given them the delightful evening, and in a 
 few moments more the impatient bays were 
 twirhng them toward home. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE EETUEN AND A JOYOUS PROMISE. 
 
 STILL more days passed, more walks, drives, 
 and frolics were enjoyed, then came the 
 welcome news that the mountain party were 
 about to return. 
 
 Judy was wild with delight when the time 
 came and the great travelling carriage started 
 again for the station, but this time to bring 
 " her own papa " back to her, instead of bear- 
 ing him away. 
 
 And heedless of Meejee's warning voice she 
 raced like a little crazy creature down the long 
 drive. Perry at her heels, when she caught a 
 glimpse of the returning carriage on a lower 
 terrace. 
 
 Papa Hicks did not chide the panting child 
 who held his head so tight as he leaped from 
 
198 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN IKDIA. 
 
 the carriage and caught her in his arms as 
 nearly to smother him. 
 
 "It'll be the last time," she gasped in a 
 tragic tone, trying her best to keep from burst- 
 ing out crying. " It 'U be the very last time, 
 papa Hicks, that you '11 ever go away iwithout 
 all you have in the world ! The very last time ! " 
 
 Then she added in a lower tone, 
 
 " But there is something dret'f ul for you to 
 know, and I 'm going to teU you my own self 
 just as soon as I can. It 's about me and it 's 
 awful." 
 
 Mr. Hicks begged to be allowed to wash his 
 face and hands and change his clothes before 
 the terrible story was told, and Perry who had 
 not left his father's side untU that moment 
 called out breezily, 
 
 " Come Judy, let's run down to the bao- 
 bab tree. I had better make the best of it 
 while I can, for papa says he 's goin' back to 
 England in about a week." 
 
 " Honest ? " cried Judy, her eyes drooping 
 their lowest. 
 
 It had scarcely occurred to her that Perry 
 
THE EETURN AND A JOYOUS PROMISE. 199 
 
 would be her companion only such a little 
 while. It had been so perfectly charming to 
 have a bright, pleasant Uttle friend to chat and 
 frohc with, that, childUke, she had never 
 thought to ask how it would seem to have 
 Perry gone, and to be by herself again. It 
 surely was hard for poor httle Judy, but she 
 said pluckily, 
 
 " If I were you. Perry Wakefield, I would 
 n't go away and leave me all alone so soon ! " 
 
 Perry became sober at sight of Judy's trou- 
 bled little face, and the peculiar air that when 
 she was grieved seemed to cause her to droop 
 all over. " Oh, Judy, I really don't want to 
 go back to England yet," he said, " although 
 I want to see mamma so very much. Perhaps 
 I '11 come back some day. I 'd Hke to, but you 
 know I must do as papa does." 
 
 " Oh, cert'nly," said Judy, whose disap- 
 pointment and dread of loneliness made her 
 seem angry when she was only troubled. " Oh 
 yes, cert'nly," she repeated, "go straight 
 back, Perry Wakefield. There are plenty 
 other American girls for you to know and 
 
200 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 have for friends beside tlie one in India. Oh 
 yes, indeed plenty of others." 
 
 Poor Perry looked about scarcely knowing 
 what to say, especially as Judy seemed on the 
 point of crying, but he was much reUeved to 
 see Meejee come and clap her hands for Judy 
 to go and be dressed for dinner. 
 
 Mr. Harwich and several others of the moun- 
 tain party were to dine at the villa, and an 
 hour later, Judy jumped merrily down the 
 steps of the veranda to greet Mr. Mac Kentric 
 as she saw him getting out of his trim cabrio- 
 let. 
 
 "An' 'tis back they've coom in a' their 
 gloory ! " he exclaimed, catching up the light 
 Judy in his arms as he seemed to delight in 
 doing. 
 
 The gentlemen had a long enjoyable meal, 
 then took their Havanas to the veranda as 
 usual. Judy had been so excited over expect- 
 ing and then greeting her papa that she now 
 lay cxu-led up in his arms half asleep yet really 
 hearing all that was being said. 
 
 For some time the talk was all about the 
 
THE EETURN AND A JOYOUS PKOMISE. 201 
 
 trip which had been an exceedingly pleasant 
 one, and Judy was getting more and" more 
 drowsy when all at once a question from one 
 of the gentlemen reached her ears which sent 
 the hot blood tingUng into her little pale face, 
 and fairly buzzing to her head. 
 
 "Which route do you take for England, 
 Mr. Hicks? Shall you stop at Naples, or 
 make direct for France ? " 
 
 Before there was any chance for reply, a 
 little figure had straightened itself perfectly 
 rigidly in Mr. Hicks' lap, a pair of violet eyes 
 had grown nearly twice their natural size, and 
 a poor, pitiful little voice, already husky with 
 pain and dread, gasped out with almost ludi- 
 crous rapidity, 
 
 " Papa-Hicks-are-you-going-to-England ? " 
 
 The gentlemen kept down the laughter 
 that almost leaped out as Mr. Hicks caught 
 the beautiful httle face between his hands, 
 gave a low laugh and pressed it against his 
 breast. 
 
 Judy was up and rigid again in an instant. 
 It seemed as though she spoke but one word 
 as she repeated breathlessly, 
 
202 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 " Papa-Hicks-are-you-going-to-England ? " 
 
 "Not unless I take my little pussy-kitty 
 with me," he said, patting the goldy-bronze 
 head, and feeling it cruel to keep the child in 
 suspense a moment longer. 
 
 "And are we both going?" she demanded. 
 
 "I shouldn't wonder, pussy, if we were, 
 and then kept on to America just for a httle 
 run." 
 
 Judy swirled around, facing Perry where 
 he sat by his father's side. 
 
 " Perry Wakefield," she said solemnly, "I 
 shan't sleep a wink to-night ! " 
 
 Then came a loud, jubilant scream with the 
 quick clapping of a pair of small hands-. 
 " Glo-r-ee-e-e ? " 
 
CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 THE JOUKNET. 
 
 IT all seemed too good to be true. Mr. 
 Hicks had not intended to tell Judy quite 
 so soon about his plan to return with Mr. 
 Wakefield and Perry to England. For the 
 excitable child he knew would scarcely be 
 able to settle down to study or anything very 
 quiet after she once knew of the sweet de- 
 light that was before her. 
 
 But neither had he thought to warn his 
 friends not to speak of it, and so he meant 
 Judy should have all the pleasure in thinking 
 of it that she could. 
 
 The gentlemen had laughed long and heart- 
 ily at the little maid's loud cry of joy after so- 
 berly declaring the night would bring her no 
 sleep, and Mr. Mac Kentric had exclaimed in 
 a voice he meant to be woful, 
 
204 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 "Faix! an' I like thot! Me sweethearrut 
 croos like a doozen sma' roosters at th' thocht 
 o' leevin' me to me fate, whiles she gangs to 
 t' other eend o' th' warld ! " 
 
 " Oh but of course I shall come back some 
 time," said Judy, beaming sweetly on her tow- 
 ering admirer. 
 
 " Weel, then I' will thry to keep me coorage 
 oop, but mind ye don't run into lone spots 
 where ye'r big sweethearrut willna be on hand 
 to prootect ye." 
 
 Judy squirmed a Httle and was silent. 
 
 The next morning she told her father all 
 about her naughty day, and the visit to the 
 Bhendi Bazaar. He talked seriously with her 
 a few moments trjing to show the real danger 
 she was in, but he saw that the child was sorry 
 and had probably decided in her wise little 
 head not to try such a thing again, so he foi> 
 gave her and let the matter pass. 
 
 Then there soon came a merry day, when 
 the servants went scurrjdng to and fro, Meejee 
 wrung her dark hands in make-believe despair 
 and real disappointment that she was to be 
 
THE JOUENEY. 205 
 
 left behind. Mrs. Crinkle shed tears, and 
 Yampa looked " sorry " as his eyes followed 
 his master and "leetle Missy" about. 
 
 Steamer trimks stood ready for the Coohe 
 porters and their carts, rugs and wraps were 
 duly strapped, Cid drew up to the steps of the 
 veranda with the travelling carriage, and the 
 beautiful journey was begun. 
 
 They passed down the hill and at length 
 drove into the town with its wide, irregular 
 streets, saw again the yellow, dried-up looking 
 women pounding rice in the queer miUs of 
 stones, saw letter-writers squatting cross- 
 legged by the road, passed lagoons — a kind of 
 creek in which the great trees above them are 
 seen exactly as if in a great mirror on the 
 ground reflecting them. 
 
 At the station they were beset by native 
 traders offering oranges, pineapples, cages of 
 monkeys and baskets of flowers for sale. 
 
 Saihng up the Arabian Sea, Judy was per- 
 fectly charmed with everybody and everything 
 to be seen. The attentive Lascars would run 
 with a bamboo steamer chair the moment she 
 
206 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 appeared on deck. Here she would watch the 
 trail of foam following the great vessel's track. 
 Then she would become absorbed in watching 
 the sailors at a game of quoits, which consisted 
 in tr3dng to hit with a flat iron ring some 
 object placed at a distance on the deck. They 
 called it " pitching quoits." 
 
 Mr. Hicks was not~ surprised one morning 
 to find Judy carefully measuring distances with 
 her eye, nor to see her give a slow, decided 
 throw sending the ring directly into a shallow 
 tub set at a good distance on the deck to re- 
 ceive it. This game of quoits became a great 
 fascination to both Perry and Judy. 
 
 During the long evenings there frequently 
 was dancing in the cabin where there was a 
 fine piano, and the children would be in high 
 glee as soon as there was a hop in prospect. 
 
 The young daughter of a stewardess had 
 gladly been engaged to act as Judy's maid, as 
 a Httle girl who had never made her own toi- 
 let could not do so at once, and Mr. Hicks had 
 preferred not to take Meejee on the long jour- 
 ney. The bare mention had threatened war 
 on Judy's part. 
 
THE JOURNEY. 207 
 
 Never was kitten or pet bird made more of 
 aboard ship than was Judy. Her ready little 
 tongue, lively ways and happy little laugh 
 seemed to do everyone good. The first and 
 second mates, fine, noble looking men pre- 
 tended to contend over the chance of dancing 
 with her, and more than once the grave fea- 
 tured captain had taken a turn with the charm- 
 ing little maid. Yet it was Perry who oftenest 
 was her merry partner in the dance. 
 
 They sailed on through the Gulf of Aden, 
 up the Red Sea, then along the famous Suez 
 canal. Someone has called this " a ship mov- 
 ing through a desert," and that was exactly 
 what it seemed like to Mr. Hicks. 
 
 On board were a few Chinese merchants, 
 several Englishmen, Germans, Frenchmen and 
 a few East Indians, beside a number of tour- 
 ists, people travelling merely for pleasure like 
 Judy and her party. 
 
 But Perry and Judy happened to be the 
 only httle people on board. Judy was glad 
 when they reached Port Said at the end of 
 the long canal. Then at Alexandria in Egypt 
 
208 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 they embarked on tlie bright blue Mediterra- 
 nean, sailing direct for Naples. Here they 
 entered a harbor, with a view that is called 
 the very finest in the world. 
 
 Their journey took them through Switzer- 
 land, where Judy caught, on a Swiss Alp, the 
 first glimpse of snow she had ever seen, but 
 it was too far in the distance to satisfy her in 
 the least. 
 
 "Did you say the snow comes down in 
 flakes ? " she asked Perry. 
 
 " Yes, in small flakes or bits." 
 
 "Big as the head of a pin? " 
 
 " Oh, big as a green pea usually, only flat." 
 
 " And it is very cold ? " 
 
 " Yes, almost as cold as ice." 
 
 Judy had seen plenty of ice. They used 
 what is called "artificial means " of making it 
 in India, by the use of ether and a process she 
 was too young to understand, hence the free 
 use of ice cream and sherbets common now in 
 the East. 
 
 But the idea of weather that would do this, 
 sending a white covering over the whole ground 
 
THE JOURNEY. 209 
 
 as far as one could see, this was a great wonder 
 to the little girl. Her father had once taken 
 her to see a little play in which occurred a 
 snow scene, and tiny bits of white cotton wool 
 had wandered through the air, then settled on 
 the stage, making a complete carpeting of 
 white. 
 
 But Judy had said to Meejee in telling her 
 of it, that of course it was just a " make be- 
 lieve," no such lovely stuff ever came out of 
 the sky, and Meejee in her ignorance had said 
 she was glad " hi ma 'selle " had so much 
 sense. 
 
 But Judy knew better now, for her papa 
 had told her how the Himalayas were covered 
 with snow at their smnmits, and her lessons 
 had also taught her about the snow of cold 
 countries. 
 
 Perry was getting very impatient to see that 
 dear mother whom he had left in England. It 
 was over four months since he had seen her, 
 for his stay in India, short as it had been, 
 and the two long journeys to and fro, used 
 up a great deal of time. 
 14 
 
210 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIKL IN IITOIA, 
 
 One day he looked up to see Judy watching 
 him, a queer Uttle expression on her face. 
 
 " It must be nice to have a mamma that is 
 aUve," she said. 
 
 Perry began stoutly, but his voice dropped 
 a bit as he remembered poor Judy never had 
 known a mother's love and care. 
 
 " Ho ! I guess it is ! I don't know what I 
 should do without any mother." 
 
 " I do," promptly returned Judy. " You 'd 
 have an ayah, and it would be nothing but 
 fight, fight, fight ! Did you ever fight yom* 
 mamma. Perry ? " 
 
 " When I was Httle, sometimes I tried it," 
 Perry answered, looking much amused at 
 Judy's speech. " But I always had to mind, 
 so I gave up trying to have my own way. 
 That's what makes the battles, you see, try- 
 ing to have your own way." 
 
 "Yes, but perhaps papa Hicks better not 
 hear you say that," remarked Judy, glancing 
 at her father who was standing at a Kttle dis- 
 tance, " it might get notions into his head." 
 
 This made Perry laugh more heartily than 
 
THE JOURNEY. 211 
 
 Judy could quite account for. They were at 
 a great hotel now, in Paris, the gay capital of 
 France, and many very stylish, dressy people 
 were in the parlor. 
 
 When they rode in the great park called 
 the Champs Elys^es, and pronounced by 
 French people Shone-E-Zee-see, and by Amer- 
 icans Shone zarla-za, it did not astonish Judy 
 as much as it did Perry to see ladies riding in 
 the fine carriages in dresses and bonnets that 
 seemed only fit for a great party or ball, and 
 the men in fancy gloves and neckties, with 
 bright button-hole bouquets. 
 
 In fact it did appear very strange to Judy 
 that so many ladies wore dark clothes, and 
 that nearly all the men were in black, heavy- 
 looking suits. 
 
 They visited picture galleries, art muse- 
 ums, and the great stores. " Oh ! oh ! " cried 
 Judy, "I should think people wovdd get lost 
 in such big places, yet they are ever so much 
 nicer than bazaars. And do they tell you 
 just what things cost ? " she went on, as her 
 quick little ears heard a clerk telKng a cus- 
 tomer the price of something. 
 
212 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " Oh yes, always, Judy. They never 
 change the prices. If a thing is marked for 
 so much, you can take it or leave it, just as 
 you please." 
 
 "And wouldn't the storekeepers run after 
 you if you thought it was too much ? " 
 
 " No, indeed ! Fancy them scuttling over 
 the counters and catching hold of women to 
 bring them back, why the ladies would think 
 they 'd gone crazy and cry for help." 
 
 Judy laughed. " Oh, people are queer in 
 Bombay city, I 've always thought so," she 
 said, with the air of speaking of some place 
 she had tried the experiment of living in for 
 a while. 
 
 When they went to church on Sunday in 
 an English chapel, and a great proportion of 
 the people came in in dark clothes, Judy whis- 
 pered to Perry, "I should think they had 
 turned into a company of black crows." 
 
 It was rough when they crossed the English 
 Channel. That capricious — or uncertain — 
 stream, so given to tumbling people about was 
 in one of its most ill-tempered moods without 
 being actually violent. 
 
THE JOUENEY. 213 
 
 The children stayed up late at night as they 
 did not care to try going to bed, in fact no 
 one was anxious to. Poor Perry felt miser- 
 ably, but Judy saw the funny side of it all. 
 
 "I feel as if I was upside down inside," she 
 said with a merry Httle laugh, " but perhaps I 
 will come round all right ' if you patient be, 
 lil ma'selle.' " And Perry knew by the al- 
 tered tone and form of speech, she was repeat- 
 ing one of Meejee's bits of advice. 
 
 Then the vessel gave a tremendous lurch. 
 " There ! now she 's standing on her head," 
 giggled Judy, " and pretty soon we '11 aU go 
 topsy-turvy. I wish Mr. MacKentric was 
 here for me to ' fa' oover onto.' " 
 
 Then came a swirhng motion, dizzy and 
 sickening. Judy could tell the suffering Perry 
 all about that too. " She 's having a fit now 
 to scare you. Feel her heels shake ?" 
 
 The next moment the great vessel seemed 
 to tremble all over, and there was a buzzing 
 movement hard to explain that set all the 
 glasses of the chandeher shaking and kept up 
 a kind of chopping with the queer buzz. 
 
214 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 "Yes," said Judy, as if she had been ex- 
 pecting it, " now she 's winding herself up, 
 and pretty soon she 's going to fly up in the 
 air and burst, and that will be the end of you 
 and me, Perry Wakefield." 
 
 " Should you care ? " drawled Perry. 
 
 "Yes, I'd be angry with her for not wait- 
 ing tni I 'd seen America, the place I belong 
 in." 
 
 "Then perhaps she'll be good enough to 
 wait until you're going back," said Perry, 
 "and save you the trouble of seeing India 
 again." 
 
 The boy was looking at Judy out of half- 
 closed eyes as he spoke and aU at once 
 watched her curiously. She had sobered at 
 his words. That was a new idea and Perry 
 saw it. What answer would she make he 
 wondered. As usual it did not take her long 
 to reply. 
 
 " Perhaps you don't know everything Perry 
 Wakefield, if you are an American boy." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 ON reaching England they went at once to 
 London, the Enghsh capital, and to the 
 hotel where Perry's mother was expecting him. 
 Mr. Wakefield and Mr. Hicks waited to give 
 some directions about the luggage, but Perry 
 could wait for nothing. 
 
 " Come on," he said to Judy, "let's get up 
 stairs, here 's the lift," and they scrambled into 
 the elevator. It happened that Judy had not 
 been in one before. 
 
 " I think this is worse than the Enghsh Chan- 
 nel," she said, clutching at Perry's sleeve. 
 " And I had rather go down than up if the end 
 of me has come." 
 
 But Perry scarcely noticed her. They only 
 had one flight to go up and Judy had scarcely 
 
216 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 done speaking when the door of the steel cage 
 sHd back and the hall was before them. 
 
 " This way," cried Perry, and it seemed to 
 Judy he actually flew along the thick, soft car- 
 pet, until without stopping to knock he threw 
 open the door of a room and rushed in. 
 
 Judy saw a very pretty lady jump up from 
 a low rocking-chair and run toward the boy 
 who was rushing toward her. And she heard 
 the words, 
 
 " Oh, my precious boy ! My darling Perry, 
 how glad — " but Perry usually so quiet had 
 thrown his arms about the lady and all Judy 
 could hear was a sound of kisses that must 
 have been in the lady's neck, for Perry's bright 
 head was cuddled almost out of sight, and a pair 
 of arms in silk and lace were holding biTn so 
 close that he seemed to have crept almost into 
 his mother's very heart. 
 
 Judy's quick eyes took it all in, she thought 
 as she swallowed quickly, " Thai's having a 
 mamma," and putting both hands before her 
 face she stood in a queer, forlorn attitude with 
 her covered face pressed against the wood-work 
 of the door. 
 
IN AMERICA. 217 
 
 After a moment Perry lifted his head and 
 looked around. " "Where 's Judy ? " he asked, 
 and then almost immediately he added, " 
 mamma, go to her please." 
 
 " My dear Uttle girl, I really could not see 
 you before," Mrs. Wakefield said in an affec- 
 tionate tone. She had read with much interest 
 and pleasure in her letters, of the wide-awake 
 child who was such a fine little companion for 
 her absent boy, and had thought how warmly 
 she should greet the little motherless girl 
 when she came with Perry to England. 
 
 Now as she gently drew Judy toward her, 
 the child still kept her hands before her face. 
 The truth was she was determined not to cry, 
 because it was so much easier to begin than it 
 was to stop, but Perry who understood what 
 must be the matter cried out briskly, 
 
 " Oh, I say, Judy, how bad your papa 'd feel 
 to come and find you feeling so. He thinks 
 that he is all the world to you, the same as you 
 are to him." 
 
 The quick-witted boy had said the right 
 thing. " So he is," said Judy's quivering httle 
 
218 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 voice, " he 's the best papa in the world, only 
 — only-" 
 
 " Oh come and see how this horse is acting," 
 exclaimed Mrs. Wakefield, and her httle ruse 
 for turning Judy's mind succeeded. In an 
 instant both children were looking from the 
 window at a horse that was rearing and plung- 
 ing and threatening to fly out of the traces at 
 some sudden fright. 
 
 " I wish Cid was here to train that fellow," 
 Judy said, all interest and her pretty eyes 
 lighting up. Then someone seized the horse's 
 head and quieted him as there came a knock 
 at the door, and Mrs. Wakefield stepped into 
 the hall to greet her husband. 
 
 Mr. Hicks was seeing about getting a room, 
 but soon joined the group in Mrs. Wakefield's 
 parlor. 
 
 It was now October, and the air clear and 
 bracing, but to Judy it seemed cold, and the 
 thick, warm clothing that Mrs. Wakefield 
 kindly selected for her felt very nice, at the 
 same time it was very strange to the child to 
 put on anything so heavy. 
 
IK AMERICA. 219 
 
 Another thing that surprised the httle for- 
 eigner was that gentlemen would catch up their 
 own travelhng bags — just as Perry had once 
 told her his father would do — and start off 
 with them, or with an overcoat over their arms. 
 No servants ran after them, no Lascars, no 
 CooHeSj no negroes even were standing around 
 awaiting beck or nod and a chance to earn a 
 silver " bit." 
 
 "They are dret'ful independent just as 
 Perry said," thought the child. 
 
 After a couple of happy weeks in London, 
 where Mrs. Wakefield took " her children " as 
 she kindly called them, to see many pleasant 
 sights, the party found ' themselves on a great 
 ocean steamer bound for America and the 
 United States. 
 
 It had been arranged that Mr. Hicks and 
 Judy should be the guests of the Wakefields 
 for perhaps a fortnight in New York, before 
 going on to Boston, a fine old city in a proud 
 old State, Mr. Hicks' native place, and where 
 his aunt, Miss Catherine Hicks, stiU dwelt ia 
 the old family mansion. 
 
220 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 This aunt had been very kind to Judy's pa- 
 pa in his younger days, and he was very fond 
 of her in reaHty, although thoughtless little 
 Judy had said she " did n't count." But she 
 had been told more than once that Aunt Cath- 
 erine was a dear old lady, and Judy had a 
 vague idea that her papa loved his aunt in a 
 way, but she was so far away, and her papa's 
 boyish days seemed so far away to the Httle 
 girl — although Mr. Hicks would still have 
 been called a yoiuig man — that Aunt Cath- 
 erine was more hke a dream or a fable to Ju- 
 dy's mind than a real person. 
 
 And then it must be confessed that the fly- 
 away child had never been anxious to think 
 there was anyone but just his Judy for her 
 papa to love. 
 
 Now, Aunt Catherine Hicks began to appear 
 more hke a reahty as Judy got near to her. 
 Her mamma had no relatives Uving, and as 
 Aunt Catherine was all there was to receive 
 her as a " blood relation," Judy wisely made 
 up her mind to accept her and make the best 
 of her. 
 
IN AMERICA. 221 
 
 On the steamer Judy was much interested 
 in the stir and bustle, the coming of passen- 
 gers and their friends as the vessel was about 
 to sail. 
 
 Immense bouquets were in the hands of de- 
 parting friends, the gifts of those to be left be- 
 hind; the tables in the cabin were covered 
 with flowers, and in the deep recess at the end 
 of the long saloon exquisite blooms were 
 banked high as the window seat would hold 
 them. A band was sending out long, sweet 
 strains of music, and the appearance of every- 
 thing was gala as possible. 
 
 " It seems like a party " said Judy, then she 
 chuckled merrily, "if there should come such 
 a night as we had on that last trip, the way 
 those flowers would dance against each other ! " 
 
 "Oh, but this isn't the Enghsh Channel," 
 said Perry, " we 're going to try the broad At- 
 lantic, and when we get out a little way we 
 shall pitch it in fine style, but it won't be the 
 cranks and dances of that old channel. " 
 
 The voyage was an easy one, the weather 
 for the most past clear and the sea calm. 
 
222 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 When they arrived in New York city, the 
 party were driven to the home of the Wake- 
 fields on Fifth Avenue where Perry and his 
 mother greeted the waiting servants in a man- 
 ner to again surprise observing Judy. There 
 were no salaams, no low bows, no silent, slave- 
 like attitudes. 
 
 In going from the steamer to the house, 
 Judy had thought she certainly should freeze. 
 It was now November and the air sharp and 
 chiU. 
 
 " What makes it so terribly cold ? " she asked 
 Perry. 
 
 " Cold ? " repeated the boy. " Why, I don't 
 call this cold. It is nothing to what we shall 
 have when old Mister Jack Frost gets along. 
 You 're a little hot-cUmate girl. I thought I 
 should roast part of the time while I was in 
 India, but I grew used to the heat very soon, 
 just as you will get used to the cold." 
 
 It was no wonder poor Judy shivered. The 
 air of the city lying between two of the swiit- 
 est of rivers sent a chilUng current through 
 the busy streets. But when the child was 
 
IN AMERICA. 223 
 
 about to enter the house she started back. 
 She thought the heat inside came at her in 
 some way. 
 
 " Where is the hot air blowing from ? " she 
 asked in amazement. 
 
 "It comes from the radiators," laughed Per- 
 ry. " It won't hit you nor hurt you. Come 
 in. I'll show you how we heat our houses here 
 in cold weather." 
 
 No one used to our climate can easily imag- 
 ine how strange it was to this little India maid 
 to see and learn about many of the customs 
 to which we scarcely give a thought, having 
 been used to them all our lives. 
 
 Judy soon thought to herself " no punkahs 
 anywhere in the rooms, but radiators with 
 heat in them, no mosquito nettings draped 
 about the beds, although Perry says in hot 
 weather they use ' screens.' Windows that go 
 up and down, but do not come out, and — of 
 all things ! — no verandas to the winter houses, 
 only a ' stoop,' how fimny ! " 
 
 For aU the handsome house was so warm 
 Judy felt chilly, but she only told her papa 
 so. Mr. Hicks looked sober, as he said, 
 
224 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " I hope I have n't made a mistake in bring- 
 ing my Uttle girl to America at this cold sea- 
 son, but it was a time when I could most 
 easily take the trip." 
 
 " Dear me ! " exclaimed Judy. " I would n't 
 have wanted to come half as much at any 
 other time, for I'm just crazy, papa Hicks to 
 see snow. I get hot winds and hot weather 
 enough at home." 
 
 " Well, get used to the nipping air soon as 
 you can," her father replied, "for you cer- 
 tainly won't find it any warmer in Boston." 
 
 It was a good thing for Judy that little by 
 little she had learned to care more for herself. 
 It had been easy until now for her papa to 
 hire someone to assist her in dressing, but 
 now she needed only a little help, and Mr. 
 Hicks was glad to be able to make an arrange- 
 ment by which one of Mrs. Wakefield's maids 
 would give the needed help and arrange Judy's 
 hair. 
 
 White had always been becoming to her, 
 and she had been arrayed in it chiefly all her 
 little life, but the warmer tints of her thicker 
 
IN AMERICA. 225 
 
 dresses were not only very becoming, but 
 their novelty pleased Judy very much. 
 
 As it grew stiU colder, she enjoyed more 
 and more the wonderful things her papa 
 brought her to wear. Chief of all however 
 was the fur. Fur — such as covered the 
 monkeys, and the jungle beasts, and such as 
 covered the seals she had read about in her 
 story-books, and studied a little of in her 
 geography. 
 
 Soft, warm, delicious fur ! Of all her " cold 
 weather clothes," Judy admired this kind the 
 most. " I 'm going to like and enjoy every- 
 thing in America ! " she said to her papa, and 
 little Miss Judy spoke the name of the great 
 country with the usual note of fondness. 
 15 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE SNOW. 
 
 JUDY had declared that New York was 
 " great fun." The park was still a beau- 
 tiful place to drive in even though there were 
 no flowers or leaves. But to a little girl who 
 had seen and Hved on Malabar Hill in the far- 
 away Bombay city, its chief beauty now was 
 the natural scenery, the fine roads and pretty 
 bridle paths. 
 
 At the steps leading to Grant's tomb she 
 had looked around, taking in the wide view 
 with pleased, childish eyes. 
 
 "It is splendid here," she said. The simple 
 grandeur inside, with its costly, varied gran- 
 ites and marbles awoke her curiosity. 
 
 " Do you give all the great men of America 
 such tombs as this ? " she asked. 
 
THE SNOW. 227 
 
 "No," Perry replied. "Our "Washington, 
 the first president of the United States, has a 
 pretty tomb at Mount Vernon, in Virginia, 
 and he was our general during the Revolu- 
 tion, but General Grant saved the Union, you 
 know." 
 
 Judy said " Oh ! " and made up her mind 
 to ask her papa all about that sometime. 
 Then she said, 
 
 "We, — I mean 'they' off there in India, 
 have the most splendid tomb in the world, I 
 suppose. It's in Agra, and is called the Taj 
 Mahal. An emperor. Shah Jahan, built it 
 when he lost a favorite wife, and, only think ! 
 it took twenty thousand men to build it. Did 
 you ever hear of anything like that ! " 
 
 Perry wondered at the ease with which 
 Judy rattled off the strange names, but then, 
 this was one of the things in India history 
 that she had heard of ever since her babyhood. 
 
 At some of the enormous stores where Judy 
 was allowed to roam at will on two or three 
 occasions, she made all kinds of remarks show- 
 ing her bright, quick mind. 
 
228 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 "Winks!" she exclaimed softly to Perry, 
 who did not much enjoy the crowded places, 
 "I never saw such amazing mixtures in my 
 life ! Pins and carpets, lace and canary birds, 
 boots and candy, ribbons and medicines, aU in 
 the same store. Lucky they do know what 
 things must cost beforehand ! If the custom- 
 ers had to be run after the way they are in 
 a bazaar, nobody'd get home without having 
 their bones broken, and there would be no 
 need to go shopping any more." 
 
 After about a week there came a day when 
 the gentlemen went " down town " not to 
 return until night, but were to lunch at some 
 " club." Mrs. Wakefield also was to lunch 
 with a friend after doing a little shopping. 
 So she left home soon after nine in the morn- 
 ing to be gone until about four in the after- 
 noon. 
 
 No sooner had she left the house than down 
 came the snow. It began in great flakes, 
 which Perry said meant it would n't stay long. 
 
 Judy was wild. "Oh, Perry," she cried, 
 "they don't come right straight down, but 
 
THE SNOW. 229 
 
 only look ! They 're dancing every which way 
 up in the air. There ! I 'm going to watch a 
 big one way up far as I can see. 
 
 "Winks!" she cried the next minute, "I 
 can't keep along with it, fifty hundred other 
 flakes whirled right round and sent it kiting. 
 Now here 's one on the window pane, oh ! 
 Perry Wakefield, it looks hke a star! Now 
 here 's another, that has more spikes to it. 
 Is n't it beautiful ! beautiful ! beautiful ! Just 
 Hke a feather dance up in the air. 
 
 " Let 's see if I can keep track of one that is 
 pretty low down near the window, yes — no, 
 oh dear, here it comes — there it goes — now 
 it 's tumbled in with the rest on the sill." 
 
 The flakes grew small. " That means it is 
 going to keep on snowing," said Perry. 
 
 " Oooh goody ! goody ! " screamed Judy, 
 " I must go out in it and see how it seems." 
 
 "No you mustn't," said Perry decidedly. 
 "Mamma always says we must be careful 
 about ' new snow.' That means you 're more 
 likely to catch cold from it when it first comes 
 down than after it has been on the ground a 
 day or two and the first chill has gone." 
 
230 'A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Pretty soon the window sill was covered 
 outside and the sidewalk began to be white all 
 over. 
 
 Judy grew more excited. " Why, it is ex- 
 actly as the stage looked that time I went to 
 the play with papa," she said. " I told Mee- 
 jee it was all made up, the ground couldn't 
 look as if it was carpeted with white cotton 
 wool, and Meejee said it was all nonsense, but 
 that 's as much as Miss Meejee knows ! My ! 
 I wish it would keep on a week." 
 
 " Hah ! I guess you 'd stop wishing by that 
 time. Miss Judy. It would be up to the top 
 of the parlor windows, and they 'd have to do 
 as they did in a blizzard papa teUs about in 
 the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight. 
 They had to get oxen out here in the city of 
 New York to cart the snow away." 
 
 " Oh, what fun ! " cried Judy. " I would 
 get a ride on one of the oxen to tell all my 
 Kttle grandchildren about when I get old as 
 Aunt Catherine Hicks." 
 
 To Judy's delight the snow kept on faUing. 
 After luncheon it had grown white outside 
 
THE SNOW. 231 
 
 everywhere. The ground was well-covered 
 and the snow was heaped up on the window- 
 siU. 
 
 " Perry, I must feel of it, I must," said Judy. 
 " I really must." 
 
 "All right," replied Perry, "then we'U go 
 down to the basement door a minute and you 
 can get a handful. If I open a window the 
 snow will fall in, and if we open the front door 
 it will blow some in, besides letting in plenty 
 of cold air. But you must wrap up, Judy, and 
 put your rubbers on. Mamma has a great 
 thick shawl in her closet you can wind round 
 you, head and all. I'll find it." 
 
 Very soon Judy had the shawl wound around 
 her and rubbers on her feet. Then she ran 
 with Perry to the basement and the courtyard 
 near the door and straightway she forgot pru- 
 dence and everything of the kind. 
 
 " It 's the loveUest thing there ever was in 
 the world, Perry, the very loveUest." All at 
 once she put some in her mouth. " Oh, it 's 
 fine to eat ! " she cried. Anything very cold 
 had always been a delight to Judy, and now, 
 
232 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 having found out that snow tasted good, she 
 kept cramming little wads of it into her mouth. 
 
 "See here, you'd better look out," warned 
 Perry, " you '11 be having an awful time of it 
 by and by, if you eat too much snow, it gives 
 anyone the worst kind of pain." 
 
 But this Judy, we know, Hked having her 
 own way. Yet as she did not want to appear 
 unwilling to take Perry's advice she kept slyly 
 tucking splotches of the soft, cold snow into 
 her mouth. It tasted delightfully to her, dif- 
 ferent from ice cream or sherbet or ice-water, 
 and it was something so new to feel the soft 
 stuff melt as soon as it was in her warm Httle 
 mouth that she took a great deal more than 
 she thought for. 
 
 " Come, Judy, we must go in now or you '11 
 be sure to take cold," Perry said after some 
 little time. 
 
 "Oh, do let's stay just a minute longer," 
 pleaded Judy. " It is so perfectly beautiful, 
 and I never saw anything like it before, you 
 know." 
 
 She was stepping here and there where the 
 
THE SNOW. 233 
 
 snow was not very deep near the area door, 
 then looking back at her footprints in the soft, 
 white carpet. 
 
 "I've seen plenty of mud with my tracks in 
 it," she said merrily, " but this is the first time 
 I 've ever seen the shape of my feet in some- 
 thing white as — as white rose or lily leaves. 
 My, isn't it pretty!" 
 
 She yielded at Perry's second call and fol- 
 lowed him into the house. She even con- 
 sented to leave the window and for about an 
 hour played games, looking out every little 
 while. Then Perry noticed that she acted a 
 little queerly, and that on each of her cheeks 
 there burned a deep red spot. All at once 
 she threw down the cards with which they 
 had been playing " Old Maid." 
 
 " Dear me ! " she sighed, " I 've got the big- 
 eat pain." 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Perry. " You ate too 
 much snow — I told you ! " 
 
 For a few moments Judy tried to bear up 
 bravely. She remembered having eaten quite 
 a quantity of the smooth, fresh snow, and be- 
 gan to wish she hadn't. 
 
234 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 " How is the pain now, Judy ? " Perry in- 
 quired after a few more minutes of silence on 
 Judy's part. 
 
 " Oh, I ache hke fury ! It just pinches aw- 
 fuUy, ooh ! " 
 
 The sharp distress wrung a little groan 
 from poor Judy as she spoke. 
 
 In another quarter of an hour poor, plucky 
 little Judy was fairly doubled up with pain, 
 and Perry again asked anxiously, 
 
 " I'm afraid it is getting worse, is n't it ? " 
 
 " Oh, I ache so fearfully ! " said the chUd. 
 "This old pain is as hard as the snow was 
 soft." 
 
 Both children laughed a httle in a forlorn 
 way, then Perry began hopefully, 
 
 " Oh, I'll teU you, Judy, our cook's a real 
 nice woman, she is n't young at all or flighty 
 like Norah, the waitress. She has grown-up 
 children and Mamma says that Libby is fine for 
 telling what to do when I have the gripe- 
 nips." 
 
 Perry giggled and so did Judy. " I have 
 them now sure," said the little girl, " it feels 
 
THE SKOW. 235 
 
 just like as that sounds. But don't ask Libby," 
 she urged, " no one need know about my eat^ 
 ing so much snow if I can only rub through 
 with this old pain." 
 
 Perry considered: "Why, I can cure you 
 my own self," he exclaimed suddenly starting 
 up. " Hold on, Judy " — as the poor child all of 
 a heap in the corner of a lounge tried to keep 
 down another little groan, — "I remember 
 what mamma always gives me when I have a 
 bad pain, and I was nearly dead once after eat- 
 ing too many hot buckwheat cakes. I bolted 
 them too fast. I know where mamma keeps 
 it; now you just hold on and I'll have you 
 well in a jiffy." 
 
 " I 'm holding; on about as tight as I can," 
 said Judy, still able to giggle faintly while 
 holding on to her poor little sides as hard as 
 she could clutch. 
 
 Perry ran to a little closet in his mother's 
 room, found a bottle marked " Jamaica Gin- 
 ger," and said hurriedly, 
 
 " There ! Now all you 've got to do is to 
 take a spoonful of this and first thing you 
 
236 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 know you '11 be all right. Let 's see, there 's 
 always a spoon in mamma's room I believe." 
 
 He found the spoon and poured out the gin- 
 ger. " Now, all right, open your mouth and 
 swallow quick," and the next moment a spoon- 
 ful of the raw, fiery ginger was in Judy's 
 mouth and she had swallowed it down. 
 
 Then she did dance ! 
 
 " Oh, Perry ! " she gasped and choked, 
 " quick ! more snow or I shall die ! Ooh — 
 snow ! snow ! " 
 
 Perry was frightened at Judy's frantic ac- 
 tions and cries. "What have I done?" he 
 thought. 
 
 But Judy, wild with her burning mouth and 
 throat, rushed to the window, herself threw 
 up the heavy sash and filled her hands with 
 snow. Then she flew into Mr. Hicks' room 
 close to the upstairs sitting room, and with 
 her head over the basin kept filhng her mouth 
 with the cold snow, letting it run from her lips 
 as it melted. 
 
 Perhaps it was the best thing she could 
 have done. Tears roUed over her cheeks as 
 
THE SNOW. 237 
 
 with great bravery for such a child, she kept 
 rinsing her mouth with cold water after the 
 snow had gone, until she could bear the less- 
 ened burning. 
 
 It was some time before she returned to the 
 lounge, then she appeared drowsy as if all 
 worn out with the different kinds of distress. 
 
 " How's the pain, Judy ? " asked Perry who 
 had trembled with alarm while the awful burn- 
 ing was going on. 
 
 "Pain?" asked Judy weakly, "Pain? Its 
 
 gone;" then she flashed out with the old 
 
 . spirit, " I should just Uke to see the pain. 
 
 Perry Wakefield, that could stay long with 
 
 such stuff as that burning it out." 
 
 Perry laughed. " You might like to see it," 
 he said, "but I guess you wouldn't want to 
 feel it." 
 
 "Did it burn you like that. Perry, when 
 you ate the hot fritters ? " 
 
 " N-o," confessed Perry. " I don't believe, 
 Judy, but what mamma mixed some water 
 with it." 
 
 But Judy was growing very sleepy. The 
 
238 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 hard pain, the fierce burning, and then the re- 
 lief would have exhausted a much older and 
 stronger person, and Perry was thankful to 
 have her appear so easy. 
 
 " You feel better, don't you, Judy ? " he 
 whispered, wanting to feel siu-e she was really 
 reheved. 
 
 "Yes," she said with a comfortable httle 
 sigh, and her voice was low and sleepy, "it's 
 a queer country, queerer than Bombay. First 
 the snow freezes you inside and gives you hor- 
 rible gripe-nips, then something burns you up 
 whole — and — cures you. It — is — worse — 
 than — Doctor — Quince — Baroo." There was 
 a faint little laugh and Judy was asleep. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 >00R little thing ! " said Mrs. Wakefield 
 pityingly, as she looked on Judy's 
 beautiful little white face and tumbled gold 
 locks while she still slept peacefully, and as if 
 the rest was doing her good. 
 
 "I can't blame you. Perry, dear, because 
 you did the best you knew, but remember an- 
 other time that hquid ginger taken clear is 
 about like liquid fire. I usually give you half 
 a teaspoonful with a little warm water and 
 sugar. Poor little dear ! " she added still 
 looking at quiet Judy. " I wonder it did n't 
 nearly choke her to death. It was really 
 cruel." 
 
 Perry had told truthfully just what had 
 happened, and although his mother could not 
 
240 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 help a shudder of laughter at the first mention 
 of an entire spoonful of raw Jamaica ginger, 
 she was full of concern the next moment. 
 
 But she felt of Judy's pulse and foimd it 
 even, and suflficiently strong, and her sleep 
 was so sweet that the kind mother, who was 
 too just to blame her boy for a mere mistake, 
 beheved that no great harm had been done. 
 
 "She won't be able to go sleighing to- 
 morrow," Mr. Hicks said to himself in the 
 evening, " even if there is sleighing. It tells 
 on a httle child to suffer such sharp pain. 
 My brave, darhng little girl ! " 
 
 He, too, had heard from Perry an account 
 of the pain and its harsh remedy, and Judy 
 had gone early to bed. 
 
 " You see it would have been better to have 
 spoken to Libby after aU," his mother had 
 added, " because one old head is better than 
 two yoimg ones when it comes to needing 
 help." 
 
 Yet, in spite of everything, Judy awoke the 
 next morning feeling nearly as well as ever, 
 and according to Perry, "as bright as a 
 cricket." 
 
BOSTON. 241 
 
 But alas ! rain was falling in place of the 
 snow, and so there would be no sleighing for 
 anyone as yet. The streets that day were 
 only little less strange to Judy than they had 
 been the day before. The pavements were 
 running with snow-water and slush. Mud 
 she had seen in plenty before as she said to 
 Perry, but the sight of horses plunging in the 
 soft mixture, part white, part gray, sHppery 
 and sticky, was something new. 
 
 And when in the afternoon hailstones fell as 
 large as an acorn, Judy carried around a tum- 
 bler half full that Perry got for her, and that 
 had not quite melted when she went to bed. 
 
 " Yes, it 's a strange country," she said again, 
 " snow and ice coming down out of the sky. I 
 do not wonder it is cold and the sun goes to 
 bed early." 
 
 A fortnight passed quickly and the day came 
 when Judy and her papa were to leave for 
 Boston. 
 
 " Won't it seem strange for us not to have 
 one another any more ? " asked Judy disconso- 
 lately. 
 16 
 
242 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIEL IN IjSTDIA. 
 
 " Very strange," Perry answered, " and I 
 shan't like it a bit, Judy, but papa says it is 
 high time I was back at school, and I suppose 
 I should have to go pretty soon anyway. That 
 would have broken up all our good times, but 
 I shall miss you awfully." 
 
 It was hard for the children to part. They 
 had played, romped, and jaunted about in com- 
 pany for months, with never a jarring word 
 since Perry understood that Judy was an Amer- 
 ican girl, and now, the Httle girl tried again 
 to be brave and " ladyfied " as she bade her 
 merry friend and his kind parents good-bye. 
 But as soon as she was seated in a parlor-car 
 bound for Boston, there was as usual much to 
 take up her attention. 
 
 Although it was but the middle of Novem- 
 ber the weather was very cold, and on ponds 
 along the pretty shore-Une the ice had formed 
 thickly enough for children and yoimg people 
 to fly over them on skates. 
 
 " Why, papa Hicks, what are those people 
 doing ? " Judy asked in wonder. Her father 
 had not told her some things simply because 
 
BOSTON. 243 
 
 he wanted ^r to see first, some of tlie strange 
 customs of his Western home. 
 
 "And can I try it some day?" she asked 
 all ahve with the idea, when she was told that 
 Jack Erost turned the water into ice, and that 
 young folks with steel runners fastened to 
 their feet went skimming over the rivers and 
 ponds hke birds. 
 
 " Certainly you shall, my dear," was the 
 reply. 
 
 It was dark when they arrived in Boston. 
 Judy only knew that Aunt Catherine lived on 
 a street called Beacon street, at her papa's 
 own old homestead; but a little jealous pang 
 shot through her heart when at the broad front 
 door, a handsome, stately old lady, in a cap 
 made all of ruches and fine ribbon met them, 
 and called her papa, " my dear, dear boy," and 
 her papa put his arms around her neck and 
 Idssed her. 
 
 But it was very different when Aunt Cath- 
 erine took hold of her own little hand, called 
 her, her dear precious little girl, and told how 
 she had longed and longed to see her. And 
 
244 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 after the maid had helped her bathe and seen 
 her safely in bed, Aunt Catherine came to see 
 that she was warmly tucked up, that the win- 
 dow was down at the top just far enough, and 
 that the pillows were all right for the bright 
 little head. How very nice it all seemed ! 
 
 " Now Auntie '11 hear you say your prayers," 
 said the grand looking old lady, "just as she 
 has heard your papa many a time. I suppose 
 your nursey has heard you say your prayers 
 at night, has n't she ? " 
 
 Judy said, "Yes, auntie," rather faintly. 
 She did n't mention that Meejee forgot quite 
 as often as she remembered them, and that she 
 usually forgot them when Meejee did. Her 
 papa had heard her occasionally but was gen- 
 erally engaged with friends at her bedtime. 
 
 After Aunt Catherine had kissed her, softly 
 pressing the Httle smooth cheek against hers 
 an instant, and told her to sleep as long as she 
 wanted to in the morning, Judy thought that 
 somehow this fine old house already seemed 
 Uke home. 
 
 In her far-away home, and at Mrs. Wake- 
 
BOSTON. 245 
 
 field's, everyone had been very kind and good 
 to her, but this was the first lady she had ever 
 known who was a " blood relation," and tender- 
 hearted Judy would certainly have cried had 
 she remembered once sajdng airily to Perry 
 that Aunt Catherine did n't count. 
 
 As it was she dropped off to sleep with a 
 very happy, contented Httle feeling in her 
 heart. She had rather dreaded coming to 
 Boston, had expected to feel lonely without 
 Perry and with only an old lady in the house 
 for company most of the day, but to be cod- 
 dled and watched over in this soft, brooding, 
 motherly way why, it seemed almost Uke hav- 
 ing a mother, Judy thought. 
 
 Then she feU asleep and dreamed that a 
 whole row of monkeys were skating up and 
 down her white counterpane, when Tom the 
 great stable cat — way off in India — came 
 thumping on to the ice, broke it, and they all 
 went tumbling in. 
 
 The next day it snowed again and Judy told 
 Aunt Catherine all about the " time " she had 
 in New York. And although Aunt Catherine 
 
246 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 said " poor little girl," slie bent over a little 
 way with laughter. 
 
 Then Judy listened while Aunt Catherine 
 told of some things that happened when she 
 was " a little maiden." It was singular that a 
 lively, fun-loving child hke Judy should have 
 felt the pleasure she did in Miss Catherine 
 Hicks' stately company. 
 
 And although the snow kept faUing at inter- 
 vals for two or three days, keeping Judy in- 
 doors all the time, she never felt lonely or 
 homesick a moment. 
 
 She enjoyed roaming through the great, 
 high-studded rooms, hked the pleasant heat in 
 them aU, hked the old family portraits, and 
 liked very much the old butler that had 
 known her father from a child. She enjoyed 
 looking across at the common from the front 
 windows, and at the water at a little distance 
 from the rear ones. 
 
 Then came a clear, ghstening morning when 
 she was again fluttering with delight. The 
 trees were covered with ice, the streets were 
 filled with snow. Sleighs of nearly every de- 
 scription went jingling by. 
 
BOSTON. 247 
 
 Judy was told that in the afternoon she 
 should go out sleighing to the "mill pond," 
 and if she hked, should sit up high beside' the 
 coachman as Uttle girls often Hked to do. 
 
 "Won't they think I am the footman?" she 
 asked in surprised delight. 
 
 " Oh no, my little one," said Aunt Catherine 
 in her careful language. " Pretty young ladies 
 are often seen perched beside the coachman ; 
 it will be perfectly proper." 
 
 Judy was wrapped in her warmest cloak 
 with fur about her neck and around her wrists. 
 A jaunty fur cap was on her head with " ear 
 tips " of fur to protect her dehcate ears. Her 
 hands well mittened were in a pretty little 
 muff, and her feet rested on a hassock on which 
 a hot soapstone kept her feet "as warm as 
 toast." 
 
 A mass of thick, bronze-gold hair fell about 
 her shoulders under the cap, and a little furze 
 of the copper-gold hair swept breezily across 
 her forehead. Sitting beside the coachman 
 she looked like a lovely picture, and her papa 
 inside the sleigh noticed the admiring looks 
 
248 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 continually cast toward his beautiful little 
 daughter. 
 
 Off started the horses, flj^ng along the 
 smooth snow, until at one of the broadest ave- 
 nues they had to slacken speed and fall into 
 line with the countless sleighs thronging the 
 wide thoroughfare. 
 
 Judy would jump around to smile down at 
 her papa and Aunt Catherine until she forgot 
 everything but the exciting scene so utterly 
 new and undreamed of before. 
 
 Magnificent thoroughbreds that seemed too 
 proud and gay to be held in by bit and bridle 
 would prance along, gay red pompons side of 
 their ears, red tassels on the front of the 
 sleigh. Four splendid horses, two abreast, 
 would curvet along as if bound to go their 
 own gait in spite of everything, yet really obe- 
 dient to the practiced handling of the Hues. 
 
 Russian sleighs with their peculiar, angular 
 bmld, filled with gayly- dressed ladies, cutters 
 of fanciful styles holding laughing young peo- 
 ple, horses in superbly mounted harnesses 
 driven by their wealthy owners with skillful, 
 
BOSTON. 249 
 
 showy ease, the sides of the avenues crowded 
 with people watching the splendid pageant, 
 a very carnival, beautiful and exhilarating as 
 a sparkling dream, all seemed as bewitching 
 to Judy as one of the stories in her "fairy 
 book," and kept her still as a little white 
 statue. 
 
 The scene, exciting to those who see it 
 often, gave so keen a look to Judy's face that 
 the coachman noticing it said with a smile of 
 good humor, " Does n't frighten you, does it, 
 UttleMiss?" 
 
 " No, indeed ! " cried Judy in a voice that 
 sounded Uke a trUl in the air. "Frighten 
 me ! Why it seems as if it must be the road 
 to heaven ! I never want to stop sleigh-riding, 
 never, never, never ! " 
 
 The coachman looked wonderingly at her a 
 moment thinking there would not be another 
 half as radiant a child on the road that after- 
 noon. Then he was obhged to turn the horses 
 toward home for the short day was already on 
 the wane. 
 
 As Mr. Hicks jumped Judy down from her 
 
250 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 high seat, he kissed her cold, fresh little 
 cheek, and said, 
 
 " "Well, and what does my Httle girl think of 
 her first sleigh-ride ? " 
 
 And impulsive Judy answered, 
 
 "Oh, papa Hicks! I don't know what to 
 say, and I can't talk, I can't! " 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE HURDT GUEDY. 
 
 THAT week Judy was provided with skates 
 and went with Imogene Phillips, the 
 daughter of a next door neighbor to the pub- 
 lic garden. 
 
 "Imogene belongs to one of our oldest 
 Boston families," Aunt Catherine said in her 
 prim way, " and is, I think a very proper little 
 maiden for' you to associate with. She will 
 call you Judith, as we of Boston do not clip 
 our names nowadays, but I trust you will en- 
 joy yourself." 
 
 Strangely enough, Aunt Catherine's precise 
 form of speech and her very particular man- 
 ners pleased Judy. She grew demure while 
 Aunt Catherine was talking, but once on the 
 ice with Imogene Phillips and her brother 
 Otis, never had she enjoyed greater sport. 
 
252 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Otis was qtiite as much both of a boy and a 
 gentleman as Perry Wakefield. He strapped 
 on Judy's skates remarking on the smallness 
 of her feet, and saying in sober boy-fashion 
 it was a mercy skates could be found to fit 
 them. Then striking out between Otis and 
 his sister, Judy declared she should know how 
 to skate in " no time." 
 
 " I 'm going to try it alone," she cried after 
 going up and down the pond a few times with 
 the other children. 
 
 " You'd better not," laughed Otis. " Skai> 
 ing is deceptive." 
 
 "Never mind, I'm going to try," persisted 
 Judy. 
 
 And try she did. Two or three strokes 
 were taken safely, then feeling more sure she 
 hurried a httle, when down she went, and up 
 flew her feet, skates and all. 
 
 "Well," exclaimed Otis, quickly helping 
 her up, " and how did you Hke the looks of 
 stars coming down unexpectedly on Boston 
 pubHc gardens?" 
 
 "I did see stars," gasped Judy, surprised 
 
THE HUKDT GUEDY. 253 
 
 that Otis should know it, " but I don't care, 
 I 'm going to try again. I was all right long 
 as I did n't try to run." 
 
 In a very few days the agile child who as 
 we know was plucky and persevering even if 
 a little willful, could skate swiftly over the 
 smooth ice without a thought or fear of falling. 
 
 And so carried away was she with the 
 delightful new sport that her papa had to set 
 a certain length of time for her to skate. For 
 she would be so lame at night, it was hard for 
 her to limp up to bed. Yet she cried and said 
 she would rather have papa Hicks carry her 
 up to bed every night than not to be allowed 
 to skate all day. 
 
 " But papa Hicks objects," said the father, 
 his eyes full of laughter. " Little Miss Judy- 
 Ju must learn that there is reason or common- 
 sense in everything, and we can't have our 
 Httle girl getting as stifE in the joints as an 
 old lady of a hundred when night comes. 
 But there will be plenty of time for skating." 
 
 Yet there came days during the first week 
 in December when it grew so mild that nearly 
 
254 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 every trace of the early snow and ice dis- 
 appeared. The flags of the sidewalk were 
 bare and clean, and the water was running at 
 the public garden. 
 
 One day, Judy, who was amusing herself in 
 her room happened to see one of her white 
 muslin dresses hanging in the closet. 
 
 " Oh, how funny it would seem to dress all up 
 India fashion," she said, looking down at her 
 warm crimson henrietta dress with its pretty 
 quiUings of crimson silk and velvet belt. 
 Then she remembered something the chamber- 
 maid had said to her one day, so she whispered 
 merrily to herself, 
 
 " Now would be a good time to let Bella see 
 one of the ' hot-weather ' dresses she said she 
 should hke to see me dressed up in. Aunt 
 Catherine is out shopping and she would n't 
 care." 
 
 In a moment Judy was arraying herself as 
 best she could in her more usual attire. She 
 found her things without much trouble, and 
 after some little time was dressed in white India 
 musUn, a white silk sash, white silk stockings 
 and white satin slippers. 
 
THE HURDT GUEDT. 255 
 
 Then with rather surprising skill she wound 
 a white ribbon about her head holding back 
 from her forehead the masses of bright, deep 
 gold hair, fastening the ribbon at the top of 
 her head with a bow in which she clasped an 
 ornament set with pieces of coral. 
 
 Then down ran Judy to the basement. Sally 
 the cook, Bella, and WiUiam the old butler, 
 were all there. 
 
 " Faythe ! an 'tis the quane o' the faairies 
 hersilf ! " cried Sally, as Judy fluttered into 
 the neat kitchen. 
 
 " Well, ye 're a perfect picture. Miss, and 
 no mistake," said Bella admiringly, " can ye 
 dance?" 
 
 " Oh yes," said Judy, and off she flew whisk- 
 ing across the hard -wood floor like a white 
 butterfly. 
 
 All at once she heard some strange new 
 music. 
 
 "Fayth, an it must be the shpring hev 
 come," exclaimed the cook, " wen a hurdy- 
 gurdy comes along." 
 
 Judy ran to the window, then bounced up- 
 
256 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 stairs to the reception-room where she could 
 see better. 
 
 A man was grinding out of a gay, queer 
 concern, what Judy thought the very merriest 
 music she had ever heard. And an Italian 
 woman that in her showy dress made Judy 
 think of some of the women of her own coun- 
 try, was doing wonders with a tambourine, 
 skipping her thumb across it with a dexterous 
 touch, knocking it with her knuckles and el- 
 bows, then shaking it until all its blithesome 
 beUs rang again. 
 
 It all seemed to intoxicate Judy, the quick, 
 sparkUng music and sprightly bells seemed 
 made for dancing and set the child's heart on 
 fire. Her feet fairly twinkled, and thinking 
 nothing of either prudence or danger, she 
 flung open the front door, darted over the 
 stone steps, and nipping a bit of her outside 
 skirt as once before between each thumb and 
 forefinger, she danced like a Httle white spirit, 
 meaning only to take one or two turns from 
 very overflow of jollity and love of motion. 
 
 The man and woman laughed. Passers-by 
 
THE HUEDY GUKDY. 257 
 
 stopped in amazement. The beautiful child 
 in a dress of gauze with a mass of bronze gold 
 hair fluttering to the motion of her spotless 
 white feet, was skimming hke a white fairy 
 over the cold pavement. 
 
 What could it mean ? Was it a real child 
 or a dancing doll ? A small crowd was collect- 
 ing when a carriage drove up and a dignified 
 old lady who actually turned pale with dismay 
 gasped out, 
 
 "Is the child crazy?" and on the instant 
 Miss Catherine Hicks slipped a quarter into 
 the proffered tambourine as she said to the 
 man and woman, 
 
 " Please pass on immediately." 
 
 Wild little Judy noticed that the music 
 stopped and ran for the steps, there she paused 
 and saw Aunt Catherine looking at her too 
 thimder-struck to speak a word; but Judy 
 thinking it about a second that she had heard 
 the lovely dance music exclaimed, 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Catherine, can't I get a coat and 
 hat and follow them a little way ? " 
 
 " You must come into the warm house this 
 17 
 
258 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IK INDIA. 
 
 instant, Judith," Aunt Catherine said in a voice 
 that trembled, " and I shall be thankful all the 
 days of my life if you do not have a dreadful 
 fit of sickness after such exposure to the cold." 
 
 " But I don't feel cold," urged Judy, " and 
 that is the best dance music I ever heard." 
 Then she looked down and laughed softly. 
 
 "I dressed all up. Aunt Catherine," she said, 
 " to show some of my India things to Bella, 
 she said she should hke to see them some day, 
 and the first thing I knew that wonderful 
 music closet came along, then out I flew. It 
 won't kiU me, auntie," and she giggled again. 
 
 But Judy soon found that her own risk and 
 danger was not the only thing troubhng Aunt 
 Catherine. The poor, proud old lady sat rub- 
 bing one dehcate hand over the other saying 
 again and again, "What will people say? 
 What will people say ! " 
 
 " Papa," said Judy that night, while Aunt 
 Catherine was receiving a caller in the " draw- 
 ing-room," " papa, what makes Aunt Catherine 
 different from any other lady I 've ever seen ? 
 She does n't wear a turban, only that beautiful 
 
THE HUEDY GTJEDT. 259 
 
 lace cap on her head, and soft, fine lace around 
 the neck of her dress and round her wrists, 
 and her hands are so ladyfied with little bits 
 of fine blue veins, and only one nice diamond 
 ring, then that curved one with black stones 
 and hair in it, and the one with a row of 
 pearls round it. 
 
 " I think her black satin dress is softer than 
 satin dresses usually are, and she says her 
 words so particular and laughs so softly, papa, 
 what is it ? I feel it, but can't explain it to 
 you. Was Aunt Catherine a lady when she 
 was born ? " 
 
 Mr. Hicks threw back his head and laughed. 
 Then with a look of amusement stiU in his 
 eyes, he sank his voice nearly to a whisper as 
 he said in a tone half sportive, half awed, 
 "My httle dear, — that's Boston." 
 
 " What is Boston, papa ? " 
 
 "All that niceness and softness, and what 
 you call 'ladyfied.' It really is refinement 
 and cultivation. Pretty hard words for a ' Uir 
 tie maiden' like you, aren't they?" 
 
 Mr. Hicks grew sober as he went on: "Yes, 
 
260 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 Aunt Catherine is a true lady, and you feel it. 
 It isn't nice to wear too many rings and jew- 
 els. The way our India women crowd them 
 on would look vulgar or common in Aunt Cath- 
 erine's eyes. Her old-fashioned ' crescent ' 
 ring of hair and little jet stones, her one fine 
 diamond, and the ring of oriental or eastern 
 pearls are quite as many rings as she would 
 think of wearing at once. 
 
 " Her laces are ' real.' That is, they are the 
 best; she probably has had them a great many 
 years. Her satin is also the best, and the 
 way she talks would be called ' staid ' and old- 
 fashioned, yet you feel the charm of it. I 
 should call it clean cut, — " 
 
 " Yes, that 's just it, papa," Judy broke in, 
 " all her words are cut clean. I don't care, I 
 Hke it." 
 
 " Yes, Judy, and her soft laugh is a part of 
 her education. She has been taught manners, 
 habits, and ways that are 'ladyfied.' " 
 
 Mr. Hicks would not alter Judy's own word, 
 he liked too weU the sound of it, but he went 
 on. 
 
THE HUEDY GUKDY. 281 
 
 " Now suppose, Judy, Aunt Catherine had 
 no rings, no satins, no laces, only her voice 
 and manners and way of speaking, what 
 then?" 
 
 Judy straightened up and looked judicial, 
 which means like a judge. 
 
 " She would be Aunt Catherine just the 
 same," she said, firmly. " It is n't the' rings 
 nor lace, it is she herself, she 's ladyfied all 
 over." Mr. Hicks looked delighted. 
 
 " I 'm glad to see my httle girl has the right 
 idea of it," he said, "I hope that she wiU 
 remember it always." 
 
 Shrewd little Judy thought a moment. 
 " Was n't Perry's mamma a lady ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes, my dear, a perfect lady." 
 
 " But she did n't seem hke Aunt Catherine." 
 
 " She was much younger, dressed in more 
 modern style, and was not as precise or exact. 
 Some people would think my dear old aunt 
 too precise." 
 
 " I don't, papa." 
 
 « Neither do I." 
 
 Judy was not quite satisfied. "But what 
 
262 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 makes Aunt Catherine just as she is, so — pre- 
 cise and particular, and all that ? " 
 
 The amused smile crept back into her papa's 
 eyes, his voice was low and almost solemn as 
 he said again, "My dear — that is Boston!" 
 
 "Now, papa Hicks, your eyes are full of 
 laughing for all you look so sober. Perhaps 
 you think I 'm too Httle to luiderstand things, 
 but I don't think so. Is Boston the best place 
 in the world to be born in? " 
 
 " Some people may think so." 
 
 "Do you?" 
 
 " No, Judy. I think nearly all places are 
 alike as far as that goes, and one as good as 
 another. People in most cases are very much 
 what they make themselves ; a birthplace 
 makes but little difference." 
 
 Judy sighed. " Were you and mamma both 
 born in Boston ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes, dear." 
 
 Mr. Hicks had hard work to keep from 
 laughing as his httle daughter drew herself up 
 with an air that had something of Aunt Cath- 
 erine's dignity in it, 
 
THE HURDT HURDT. 263 
 
 "Well, papa Hicks, I don't agree with you," 
 she said. " I would rather have been born 
 here in Boston than anywhere else in the 
 world, and I 'd give my diamond buckles and 
 all my best clothes if I only had been." 
 
 " But why, pussy-kitty, can you tell why ? " 
 
 "Yes, papa. You said once you thought 
 there was something in the air that made the 
 people of India look sleepy and move about as 
 if they were haK awake. And I think there is 
 something about the air of Boston that makes 
 people proper and ladyfied. And " — with a 
 suddenly grand air — "I belong to Boston of 
 course, if I did live in India a Httle while first." 
 
 Mr. Hicks was entirely sober as he rephed, 
 " Ah, does that explain what made my httle 
 daughter chng to the back of a carriage in 
 Bombay, and dance on the sidewalk to the 
 music of a hurdy-gurdy in America ? " 
 
 Then he knew all about that last escapade ! 
 
 "Wouldn't I have done those things if I 
 had been born in Boston ? " asked poor Judy. 
 
 "Not as a rule. We generally sit very 
 erect in our carriages, and dance to the music 
 
264 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 of symphonies and quintette clubs, and the 
 poetical measure of classic — " 
 
 " There now, papa Hicks, you are laughing 
 at me," — giving his cheek a smart pat, " but I 
 am your own little girl and you 're my own 
 papa, and I am going to be as proper as — as 
 any other Boston girl one of these days ! " 
 
 Judy choked down a sob as she finished her 
 stout little speech, but her papa caught her 
 up exclaiming, lightly, 
 
 " So you shall, Judy dear, but aU you need 
 think about being now, is just a good, sensible 
 little girl wherever you are." 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 HOLIDAY JOYS. 
 
 TO Judy's fresh delight another week 
 brought snow again, and the ponds and 
 smaller streams turned into ice. 
 
 Meantime the little girl from the far East- 
 ern clime had found out something of the 
 danger of trifling with the colder, sterner 
 climate of Western shores. The first hard 
 cold of her life had "bothered" Judy as she 
 expressed it, but her father and Aunt Catherine 
 had been comforted at seeing how good a con- 
 stitution the child must have not to have 
 been really ill after her out-door little dance. 
 
 But now, as Judy took her walks and drives, 
 everything she saw and heard seemed to point 
 to one great day and one great event. 
 
 She had been much pleased and interested 
 
266 A LITTLE AMERICAIJ GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 in the Thanksgiving day that came soon after 
 her arrival in Boston, a day that Aunt Cath- 
 erine had made much of, inviting the minister 
 and his family to dinner, and sending out gen- 
 erous baskets of food to some poor famihes. 
 
 Aunt Catherine, in the peculiar language 
 that charmed Judy's httle ear had told her aU 
 about the first Thanksgiving day of our be- 
 loved country when the poor colonists had ap- 
 pointed a day of Thanksgiving because the 
 corn had ripened and been sufficient for their 
 needs, and rain had been sent in answer to 
 prayer. 
 
 The child clapped her hands with satisfac- 
 tion on hearing how generously Massasoit, 
 Chief of the Wompanoag tribe of Indians and 
 a hundred of his braves, had been invited to 
 share the simple feast. 
 
 She easily understood how Thanksgiving 
 day from being a New England holiday had 
 become one all over the nation. 
 
 "I remember plainly, dear little Judith," 
 Aunt Catherine said, "how as a very little 
 maiden I used to feel all my pulses bound, I 
 
HOLIDAY JOTS. 267 
 
 might even say dance, when the minister in 
 the pulpit would begin unfolding the great 
 sheet that I knew was the Thanksgiving Proc- 
 lamation sent out by the Governor of Mass- 
 achusetts, and when he reached the words : 
 'God save the commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts ! ' I would choke all up with repressed 
 feeling. 
 
 " I am so glad that to this day, dear Judith, 
 many of our ministers still read the Governor's 
 Proclamation from the sacred desk, but now 
 our honored President of the United States 
 sends one out also, which appears in all the 
 papers, and I read it with great gratitude to 
 God for all his mercies. 
 
 "Now, should you hear the proclamation 
 read on Sunday, you will know what it means, 
 but it used to mean so far more for me in the 
 long past, little Judith, than it ever can again ! 
 It then was a great family festival when every 
 absent member of a family would come to the 
 old home if possible. 
 
 "Hundreds of miles would be travelled. 
 Mothers would take their children and crowd 
 
268 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 them into the great carriage or wide, old- 
 fashioned sleigh, or into the stage coach, and 
 aU along the country roads everywhere peo- 
 ple would be seen journejdng happily along. 
 
 " Long tables would be spread, perhaps two, 
 one for the grown people and one for the chil- 
 dren. The great dinner would take a large 
 part of the afternoon, then in the evening, 
 such frohcking ! 
 
 " Our parents and grandparents would take 
 part in the old-fashioned game of ' bhnd man's 
 buff,' when one person would have the eyes 
 blinded and chase about until someone was 
 caught. The children would squeeze into cor- 
 ners or even under the table. The older ones 
 would hide behind doors or anywhere out of 
 the way of the bhnd man. 
 
 " When anyone was caught, he or she would 
 have to have the eyes covered with a pocket- 
 handkerchief, such as we used to carry, my 
 dear, and be the catcher." 
 
 Aunt Catherine had to tell this entrancing 
 story over and over again, for Judy never could 
 have enough of it. She squealed with dehght 
 
HOLIDAY JOTS. 269 
 
 on hearing how on one Thanksgiving day, her 
 own grandpapa, Aunt Catherine's brother, 
 would insist on wearing a very high stock, too 
 old for him then, and which was a stiff broad 
 band worn about the neck, 
 
 " And when he was caught stooping down 
 in a corner, by one of his girl cousins," Aunt 
 Catherine had said, " she knew him in a mo- 
 ment by that ridiculous stock close under his 
 curly head." 
 
 " Your own papa came on the stage rather 
 late for the old-time game, although in his 
 younger days he has been present at more 
 than one of our family gatherings. Your poor, 
 pretty mamma was with us once or twice, too," 
 Aunt Catherine added in a tender tone, " and 
 we all knew her good family well and were de- 
 lighted with her sweet, gentle manners. 
 
 "We regretted it greatly when she went 
 and your dear papa too, to far away India, and 
 the next Thanksgiving day after she had passed 
 to her heavenly home was a very sad one for 
 us all. We did not think it would be so long 
 before her dear little offspring would come 
 
270 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIEL IN INDIA. 
 
 this way, nor that Aunt Catherine would be 
 the only one of our once large family left to 
 greet her." 
 
 Judy would certainly have cried at this part 
 of the story which Aunt Catherine told but 
 once, had it not been that fortunately the word 
 " offspring " caught and chained her attention. 
 She had a sudden dreadful suspicion that it 
 meant some creature of India, and Aunt Cath- 
 erine was much surprised when as she stopped 
 speaking Judy asked rather faintly, 
 
 "Was my papa ever an — an — offspring?" 
 
 " Oh, certainly, dear, it means simply one's 
 child." 
 
 " Then papa was my grandpa's offspring ? " 
 asked bright Judy in a tone of relief. 
 
 " Yes, dear little Judith, he was precisely 
 that." 
 
 And now as was said before, everything was 
 taking on even more of a holiday look than at 
 the happy Thanksgiving time. 
 
 Imogene Phillips was fuU of it and Otis too. 
 Every time the children were on the ice to- 
 gether, and that was every day now, they 
 
HOLIDAY JOYS. 271 
 
 talked and talked about Christmas and what 
 they would " have." 
 
 And Judy understood it in a way. She al^ 
 ways had received a pretty Christmas gift from 
 her papa, and knew perfectly well that Christ 
 was born on that day. 
 
 But all this gala appearance of the stores, 
 the wonderful figures of a jolly Santa Claus in 
 the windows, the rush and scramble at the 
 counters, the talk, the animation, the trees al- 
 ready standing at the doors of the market 
 whither she delighted in going with Bella, and 
 the astonishing display of " Christmas candy," 
 nuts, and every kind of a "goody" imagin- 
 able, these signs of celebration and rejoicing 
 on every hand were new to Judy, and set her 
 always lively little tongue flying faster than 
 ever. 
 
 Then it was very kindly arranged that Judy 
 should spend Christmas eve with Imogene and 
 Otis PhilUps, and that her gifts should be 
 placed on the lovely tree along with theirs. 
 
 And to Judy's further pleasure, Mr. Hicks 
 said that as Imogene and Otis had been such 
 
272 A LITTLE AMEKICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 kind, accommodating young friends, teaching 
 Judy to skate, and continually calling for lier 
 to go with them to the pond, it would be very 
 nice for her to give them each a pretty pres- 
 ent. 
 
 So happy Judy went to one of the great 
 "shops" as she called them, and squeezed 
 through the awful crowd, and succeeded in 
 getting a soft Russia leather bag with silver 
 buckles on the straps in which Otis could 
 carry his schoolbooks to and fro. Judy had 
 heard him say his schoolbag was all worn out. 
 
 And for Imogene they had found at a jewel- 
 er's a lovely clasp, part gold and part silver 
 with which to fasten her pretty belts. 
 
 When Christmas eve came Judy -^as frdl of 
 excitement and impatience, but it quieted her 
 a httle when Aunt Catherine remarked, 
 
 "Little ladies should always endeavor to 
 keep calm and self-possessed, no matter what 
 the occasion." 
 
 " That's Boston," whispered Judy gleefully 
 to herself, but she gave heed to the kind coun- 
 sel, if the words were large and grave for a lit- 
 tle girl. 
 
HOLIDAY JOYS. 273 
 
 It was all so beautiful and new to Judy ! 
 The wide parlors of the Beacon street mansion 
 were all aglow with light and dehghtful 
 warmth. The Christmas tree stood proud and 
 brave in a convenient bay-window, its tinsel 
 chains of many colors, and tiny glass globes 
 glittering all through the fragrant branches. 
 Bags of candy and sugared fruits hung as if 
 growing from the wonderful tree. The yovmg- 
 er Phillips children fluttered through the 
 rooms in high glee, waiting for the many gifts 
 to be taken down by a fine-looking, grey- 
 whiskered grandpa, who was to be the Santa 
 Claus of the evening. 
 
 Judy enjoyed every moment. And it 
 pleased her greatly, when beside her gifts 
 from her papa and Aunt Catharine, there came 
 into her hands a book from Otis Phillips filled 
 with Boston views, and another book from 
 Imogene filled with the most charming pic- 
 tures of Santa Claus and a poem which the 
 pictures explained. She saw that it began 
 " Twas the night before Christmas." 
 
 As with many other dear, happy children 
 18 
 
274 A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 the sparkKng verses were to become great 
 favorites with Judy. 
 
 The next day, Christmas, Judy went with 
 her papa to a church and heard some wonder- 
 ful singing by a choir of boys. And at noon 
 she was given just a peep at a company of 
 three hundred newsboys who were feasting at 
 the city's expense. 
 
 It was a sight Judy never forgot. 
 
 " Oh, papa," said the tender-hearted child, 
 " do they do this anywhere else for the poor 
 street boys on Christmas day ? " 
 
 " Yes, dear, they do it both at Thanksgiving 
 and Christmas days in nearly all the great 
 cities of the United States. Not only the 
 newsboys, but other great companies of the 
 poor and unfortunate are feasted on these, 
 what are called national holidays. But Christ- 
 mas you know, is celebrated throughout all 
 Christendom, the whole Christian world." 
 
 Then he added : " But noble as Americans 
 are in their charities you must not suppose 
 that other countries are far behind them, 
 although it is as a nation that they are so 
 
HOLIBAY JOYS. 275 
 
 grandly generous. Some day you will learn 
 about the good, princely Sir Jamsetjee Jejeeb- 
 hoy, our Parsee baronet of Bombay wbo has 
 spread most splendid gifts all through his own 
 country. Great and kind hearts are almost 
 everywhere as my Uttle girl will learn in 
 time." 
 
 After Aunt Catherine's fine dinner, Judy 
 had another sleighride, when if possible the 
 roads were even more crowded than on her 
 first one. 
 
 At night the tired child said to Aunt Cath- 
 erine, " This has been the crowded-est day I 
 ever had, but it has been one of the happiest 
 too. I shan't ever forget this Christmas day." 
 
 " Yes, it has been a very full day, my dear 
 child," Aunt Catherine said caressingly, " and 
 our little girl will have it to think of when she 
 gets back to her own home and her native 
 lanS." 
 
 The next moment Judy felt astonished. 
 For the first time she had heard someone 
 speak of another country than America as her 
 native land, without a great sigh of regret. 
 
CHAPTER XXin. 
 
 WHAT JUDY LOVED. 
 
 JUDY soon scented what was in the air, 
 when early in blustering March she heard 
 her papa speak of " going back." At first she 
 did not want to hear it mentioned. 
 
 At the time of Washington's birthday, she 
 had been with Imogene Phillips to the exer- 
 cises at a pubhc school, and so fired was her 
 little patriotic heart that she told her papa 
 afterwards she was " an American through and 
 through." And the sight of the great com- 
 pany of children had seemed something per- 
 fectly delightful to the child who had always 
 had to study by herself. 
 
 But her papa was wondering how his lively, 
 susceptible — which means quick to feel, or 
 easily touched — little daughter, would stand 
 a certain test. 
 
WHAT JUDY LOVED. 277 
 
 "Come, Miss Puss," he said cheerily one 
 bright morning shortly before their visit was 
 to end, " how should you like to go to the 
 State House with me and see some of the prep- 
 arations for a meeting that is to be held there 
 this afternoon ? " 
 
 "I should like it ever and ever so much, 
 papa," she rephed, trying not to jump up too 
 suddenly from the breakfast table. 
 
 And pretty soon in her warm, becoming 
 outer garments she was all ready for the httle 
 trip, and off she started full of the childish 
 spirits her father so hked to see. 
 
 They entered the great building " stately " 
 in every sense under its glittering dome, 
 went through the wide hall, stopping before 
 the high glass doors, behind which were many 
 of our old battle flags. 
 
 "I know all about Old Glory now," said 
 Judy with a proud little toss of her head, as 
 her father explained briefly what some of the 
 battered old banners had seen. 
 
 In time they entered the place where the 
 meeting was to be held. It was to be an in- 
 
278 A LITTLE AMEEICAN GIKL IN INDIA. 
 
 ternational afEair, meaning that men of differ- 
 ent nations were to come together to talk over 
 important matters concerning different lands. 
 
 As Judy entered the room her eye caught 
 the simple yet meaning decorations which con- 
 sisted chiefly of the flags of several nations 
 tastefully arranged and intertwined. 
 
 All at once she caught her breath and her 
 papa felt the little gloved hand in his tighten 
 its grasp. He had spoken to another gentle- 
 man and for a moment did not give attention 
 to the silent child at his side. 
 
 When he did turn and look down at Judy, 
 she had withdrawn from him a Uttle and stood 
 with her hands clasped before her, looking 
 hard at the different ensigns gracefully draped 
 against the walls. 
 
 Her eyes rested thoughtfully on the glori- 
 ous Stars and Stripes, then glanced at the 
 brave EngUsh flag, and went quickly to the 
 Marine colors of India. 
 
 " "Well ? " said Mr. Hicks inquiringly. 
 
 Judy looked up and saw the smiling expres- 
 sion in her father's eyes. 
 
WHAT JTJDY LOVED. 279 
 
 " Papa, I wish you could take me up in your 
 arms," she said softly, "I want to say some- 
 thing." 
 
 Mr. Hicks found a short settle at one side 
 of the room, and Judy cuddled close to him. 
 He knew that some strong new feeling was at 
 work with the Httle girl who had grown so 
 quiet. 
 
 " Papa," she began in the gasping way nat- 
 ural to her when at aU excited, " Papa, I love 
 them aU ! I did n't know it till just now, but 
 I do ! I love the beautiful Stars and Stripes, 
 that is partly my own flag, and — I love the 
 English flag too, that I 've seen so long. And 
 I love the colors I have always seen flying 
 from the masts of the vessels down at the 
 Arabian Sea." 
 
 " And papa, I am all ready to go back to 
 Bombay and Malabar Hill whenever you want 
 to go." 
 
 Suddenly she interrupted herself, still speak- 
 ing in her eager, breathless way. 
 
 "Papa, what makes me love the English 
 flag and our Marine colors after all ? " 
 
^8U A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. 
 
 "Because, my dear little girl, you have 
 lived under the English flag all your life, and 
 it has protected you, and been a friend to you, 
 a kind, powerful friend. And the colors of 
 India, Judy, have been the colors of your 
 native land, and these things go down more 
 deeply than a httle child knows, until some- 
 thing shows you the truth." 
 
 " Yes, I remember how Perry Wakefield fell 
 all in a heap one night up in a corner of the 
 carriage and cried most out loud when he saw 
 his own flag in India and heard his 'Hail 
 Columbia.' But it's all right, is n't it, to love 
 two countries and two flags ? " 
 
 " Certainly, my darling ! Papa is dehghted 
 that you find this out so early in Hfe. It is 
 only when the people of different nations 
 come to know and love each other, and love 
 what stands for the honor and glory of their 
 own land and the land of other men, that the 
 beautiful Christmas angels and the Christmas 
 spirit can bring Peace and Good WO! to the 
 nations of the earth." 
 
 The sun was setting in its white splendor 
 
"WHAT JUDY LOVED. 281 
 
 when, a few manths later, Judy stood on the 
 piazza of the lovely Villa Welcome. 
 
 Mrs. Crinkle had kissed her with sincere 
 affection. Meejee had welcomed her with a 
 great clapping of hands. Yampa had made a 
 series of salaams. Janlan and Bappo had 
 bowed low before her, hands on hearts. 
 
 Judy looked around. 
 
 " Papa," she said gently, " when the time 
 comes for us to go to America to finish my 
 education as my governess says, I know I 
 shall be happy, happy, happy ! to go back 
 to om* other country and to dear Aunt Cath- 
 erine, but papa, — I love America and I love 
 India!" 
 
 THE END. 
 
The Boys* and Girls' Bookshelf 
 
 A SERIES of Illustrated twelvemo volumes by Popular 
 Authors, attractively bound in cloth, extra, embracing Stories 
 by Louisa M. Alcott, Susan Coolidge, Mrs. Ewing, Laura 
 Richards, Mary P. Wells Smith, Louise Chandler Moul- 
 TON, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lily F. Wesselhoeft, A. G. 
 Plympton, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Jean Ingelow, 
 and other writers. Each One Dollar. 
 
 list of volumes 
 
 I. My Boys. By Louisa M. 
 Alcott. 
 
 a. Mopsa the Fairy. By Jean 
 Ingelow. 
 
 3. A Guernsey Isily. By Susan 
 Coolidge. 
 
 4. Nan at Camp Chicopee. By 
 Myra Sawyer Hamlin. 
 
 5. Double Play. By Dr. Wil- 
 liam Everett. 
 
 6. Hester Stanley at St. 
 Mark's. By Harriet Prescott 
 Spofford. 
 
 7. A Little American Girl in 
 India. By Harriet A. Cheever. 
 
 8. Jan of the Windmill. By 
 Juliana H. Ewing. 
 
 g. The Resolute Mr. Pansy. 
 By Prof. John Trowbridge. 
 10. A Flower of the Wilder- 
 ness. By A. G. Plympton. 
 
 II. The Island Impossible. By 
 Harriet Morgan. 
 
 12. Sparrow the Tramp. By 
 Lily F. Wesselhoeft. 
 
 13. The Drifting Island. By 
 Walter Wentworth. 
 
 14. Mice at Play. By Neil 
 Forest. 
 
 15. Among the Lindens. By 
 Evelyn Raymond. 
 
 16. The Joyous Story of Toto, 
 By Laura Richards. 
 
 17. Bed-Time Stories. By 
 Louise Chandler Moulton. 
 
 18. With Fife and Drum at, 
 Louisbourg. By J. M. Oxley. 
 ig. The Boys and Girls of 
 Brantham. By Evelyn Ray- 
 mond. 
 
 20. Hope Benham. By Nora 
 Perry. 
 
 21. 'Twixt You and Me. By 
 Grace Le Baron. - 
 
 22. Scouting for Washington. 
 By John Preston True. 
 
 23. Jolly Good Times. By 
 Mary P. Wells Smith. 
 
 24. Treasure Island. By Rob- 
 ert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 25. Their Canoe Trip. By 
 Mary P. Wells Smith. 
 
 26. Six to Sixteen. By Juli- 
 ana H. Ewing. 
 
 27. Hester Stanley's Friends. 
 By Harriet Prescott Spofford. 
 aS. Castle Blair. By Flora 
 Shaw. 
 
 29. The Secret of the Black 
 Butte. By William Shattuck. 
 
 30. Stories Told to a Child. 
 
 By Jean Ingelow. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY 
 
 Publishers, 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
New Books for the Young 
 
 MORGAN'S MEN 
 
 A thrilling Revolutionary story by John Preston True, author of 
 "Scouting for Washington," " The Iron Star," etc. Illustrated, 
 izmo, ;gi.20 net. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 A capital boys' and girls' story, by Edith Robinson. Illustrated, 
 izmo, |!i.20 net. 
 
 BRENDA'S SUMMER AT ROCKLEY 
 
 By Helen Leah Reed, author of " Brenda, her School and her 
 Club." Illustrated, l2mo, $1.20 net. 
 
 AS THE GOOSE FLIES 
 
 Written and illustrated by Katharine Pyle, author of " The 
 Christmas Angel." i2mo, 1 1.20 net. 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL DAYS IN HARBORTOWN 
 
 By Lily F. Wesselhoeft, author of " Doris and Her Dog 
 Rodney." Illustrated, izmo, $i.zo net. 
 
 FOUR ON A FARM 
 
 By Mary P. Wells Smith, author of " The Jolly Good Times 
 Stories," "The Young Puritan Stories," etc. Illustrated, i2mo, 
 1 1. 20 net. 
 
 HOLLY-BERRY AND MISTLETOE 
 
 A Christmas Romance of 1492. By Mary Caroline Hyde. H- 
 iustrated, 1 2mo, 80 cents net. 
 
 THE STORY OF A LITTLE POET 
 
 An original child's story by Sophie Cramp Taylor. Illustrated, 
 1 2mo, ^ 1 . 20 net. 
 
 THE MAGIC KEY 
 
 A fairy story of the modern kind, by Elizabeth S. Tucker. Il- 
 lustrated, i2mo, ^i.oo net. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, ^ COMPANY, Publuhers 
 ZS4 WASHINGTON STREET. BOSTON. MASS. 
 
New Books for Young Feople 
 
 NATHALIE'S CHUM. By Anna Chapin Ray. Author of 
 "Teddy: Her Book," etc. Illustrated, 12010, jSi. 20 «rf. 
 
 ON GUARD! AGAINST TARLETON AND TORY. By John 
 Preston True, author of "Morgan's Men," etc. Illustrated, i2mo, 
 $i.20 net. 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF TORQUA. By Charles F. Holder. 
 Illustrated, i2mo, $1.20 net. 
 
 BRENDA'S COUSIN AT RADCLIFFE. By Helen Leah 
 Reed, author of "Brenda: Her School and Her Club." Illustrated, 
 l2ino, $1.20 net. 
 
 POLLY'S SECRET. A Story of the Kennebec. By Harriet 
 A. Nash. Illustrated by Harry C. Edwards. i2mo, $1.20 net. 
 
 IN THE GREEN FOREST. Written and Ulustrated by Katha- 
 rine Pyle, author of " As the Goose Flies," etc. Crown 8vo, f 1.50 net. 
 
 JACK AND HIS ISLAND. By Lucy M. Thruston, author of 
 " A Girl of Virginia," etc. Illustrated, i2mo, $1.20 net. 
 
 CATHARINE'S PROXY. A Story of Schoolgirl Life. By 
 Myra Sawyer Hamlin, author of "Nan at Camp Chicopee," etc. 
 Illustrated, i2mo, jfi.20 ?iet. 
 
 FOXY THE FAITHFUL. By Lily F. Wesselhoeft, author of 
 " Sparrow the Tramp," etc. Illustrated, i2mo, $1.20 net. 
 
 GRANDMA'S GIRLS. By Helen Morris. Illustrated, i2mo, 
 J 1. 20 net. 
 
 THE PRINCESS KALLISTO AND OTHER TALES OF 
 THE FAIRIES. By William Dana Orcutt. Illustrated, 4to, 
 $2.00 net. 
 
 A DORNFIELD SUMMER. By Mary M. Haley. Illustrated, 
 l2mo, jSi.20 net. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY 
 
 Publishers, 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
Louisa M. Alcott's Writings 
 
 THE LITTLE WOMEN SERIES. 
 
 Little Women ; or Meg, Jo, Beth, 
 and Amy. Illustrated. idmo.jSi.so. 
 
 Little Men. Life at Plumfield 
 with Jo's Boys. Illustrated. 
 i6mo. jfi.50. 
 
 Jo's Boys and How They Turned 
 Out. A Sequel to " Little Men." 
 Portrait of Author. i6mo. jSi.50. 
 
 An Old-Fashioned Girl. Illus- 
 trated. i6mo. $1.50. 
 The above eight volumes, uniformly 
 
 Eight Cousins; or. The Aunt- 
 Hill. Illustrated. i6mo. $1.50. 
 
 Rose in Bloom. A Sequel to 
 " Eight Cousins." Illustrated. 
 i6mo. $1.50. 
 
 Under the Lilacs. Illustrated. 
 i6mo. $1.50. 
 
 Jack and Jill. A Village Story. 
 Illustrated. i6mo. I1.50. 
 
 bound in cloth, gilt, in box, JSiz.oa 
 
 NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF LITTLE WOMEN 
 
 SERIES. 
 Little Men. With 15 full-page illustrations by Reginald B. Birch. 
 
 Crown 8vo. JS2.00. 
 Little Women. With 15 full-page illustrations by Alice Barber 
 
 Stephens. Crown 8vo. $2.00. 
 An Old-Fashioned Girl. With 1 2 full-page pictures by Jessie Willcox 
 
 Smith. Crown 8vo. jSz.oo. 
 
 Other 'volumes in preparation. 
 
 THE SPINNING-WHEEL SERIES. 
 Spinning- Wheel Stories. I Proverb Stories. 
 
 Silver Pitchers. | A Garland for Girls. 
 
 4 vols. i6rao. Each, i)5i.25. In box, iS5.oo. 
 
 AUNT JO'S scrap-bag; 
 
 My Boys. 
 
 Shawl-Straps. 
 
 Cupid and Chow-Chow. 
 
 6 vols. i6mo. Illustrated. 
 
 LULU'S LIBRARY. 
 
 Three volumes. Each, jSi.oo. The set uniformly bound in cloth, gilt, 
 in box, JS3.00. 
 
 NOVELS, ETC. Uniform with "Little Women Series." 
 
 My Girls. 
 
 Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore. 
 An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiv- 
 ing. 
 Each, jS 1. 00. In box, $6.00. 
 
 Hospital Sketches. 
 
 Work. 
 
 Comic Tragedies. 
 
 6 vols. i6mo. Each, S1.50. 
 
 Moods. 
 
 A Modern Mephistopheles. 
 
 Life of Louisa May Alcott. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY 
 
 Publishers, 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 
 

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