Short stories and selections for use in the secondary schools
General
Short stories and selections for use in the secondary schools
English prose literature; Readers; Short stories
My hut had no door, but was closed with a mat, and it was very funny to
see Tommy gently raising one corner of this mat to see if I was asleep.
Sometimes I counterfeited sleep, and then stirred just as he was in the
act of taking off his prize. Then he would drop everything, and make off
in the utmost consternation.
He kept the run of mealtimes, and was present at as many meals as
possible; that is, he would go from my breakfast to half a dozen others,
and beg something at each. But he never missed my breakfast and dinner,
knowing by experience that he fared best there. I had a kind of rude
table made, on which my meals were served in the open part of my house.
This was too high for Tommy to see the dishes; so he used to come in
before I sat down, when all was ready, and climb up on the pole which
supported the roof. From here he attentively surveyed every dish on the
table, and having determined what to have, he would descend and sit down
at my side.
If I did not immediately pay attention to him, he began to howl, "Hew!
hew! hew!" louder and louder, till, for peace's sake, his wants were
satisfied. Of course, I could not tell what he had chosen for dinner of
my different dishes, and would offer him first one, then another, till
the right one came. If he received what he did not want, he threw it
down on the ground with a little shriek of anger and a stamp of his
foot; and this was repeated till he was served to his liking. In short,
he behaved very much like a badly spoiled child.
If I pleased him quickly, he thanked me by a kind of gentle murmur, like
"hooboo," and would hold out his hand to shake mine. He was very fond of
boiled meat,--particularly boiled fish,--and was constantly picking
bones he picked up about the town. He wanted always to taste of my
coffee, and, when Makondai brought it, would beg of me, in the most
serious manner, for some.
I made him a little pillow to sleep on, and this he was very fond of.
When he was once accustomed to it he never parted from it more, but
dragged it after him wherever he went. If by any chance it was lost, the
whole camp knew it by his howls; and sometimes I had to send people to
look for it when he had mislaid it on some forest excursion, so that he
would stop his noise. He slept on it always, coiled up into a little
heap, and only relinquished it when I gave him permission to accompany
me into the woods.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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