St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, No. 06, April 1878: Scribner's IllustratedVarious
General
St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, No. 06, April 1878: Scribner's Illustrated
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals; Children's periodicals, American
Kitty looked silently and wonderingly at the kind-hearted merchant a
moment, and then her little mind began to realize that she was among a
strange people who could not understand a word that she might say. The
tears began to come in the gray eyes, and turning, she said, "I will go
home." But which way? Her little head grew bewildered, and, to crown all,
an immense camel stalking along with silent tread nearly stepped on her
little foot. She cried in earnest now, and the merchant kindly lifted her
up beside him on a soft, Turkish rug, right in the midst of the flashing
gems.
Quite a crowd had gathered now, listening eagerly while the man pictured
in earnest language the position of the lost child. But none knew little
Kitty; not a soul could speak to her in all that motley crowd of camel
drivers, donkey boys, beggars, milkmen with their goats, merchants and
dark-eyed women wrapped in their mantles and veils. There was none to help
her. Suddenly, out from the crowd came a young Arab boy, one of those
little fellows who carry about with them a vest full of snakes, exhibiting
them for a living in front of hotels and other public places.
"Me know she!" he cried, as his eyes fell on the little girl sitting there
on the rich Turkish carpet, her soft, golden hair floating around her,
more beautiful than all the merchant's gold and jewels.
The boy rapidly addressed the merchant, Kitty catching at the words, and
trying in vain to understand them. They seemed to satisfy the merchant,
however, and then the boy, pushing down a restless snake into its retreat,
advanced to the troubled child.
"You Americano," he said. "Me see you in New Hotel. You want see papa? Me
tek you."
Kitty, started up delighted; but at the sight of that inquisitive snake
making its re-appearance from the boy's pocket, she retreated and sat down
again amid the jewels. The merchant laughed. "She likes my diamonds,
Mahomet, better than your ugly reptiles." Then, taking a little gold ring
set with a small blue turquoise, he placed it on Kitty's first finger and
lifted her off the carpet, calling as he did so to a passing donkey boy,
and giving him some hurried instructions. Kitty smiled her thanks for her
pretty ring, and seeing the snake boy looking fiercely at the donkey boy,
who had lifted her into the saddle, "Come, too," she said, "you can talk,
and this boy can't." So the two boys ran alongside of the donkey, watching
carefully lest the little rider should fall; and very soon they emerged
from the bazaar and were galloping along the Mouski.
Meantime, Kitty's absence had been discovered at the hotel, and great
excitement followed. Her mamma fainted, and Maggie wrung her hands in
anxiety and despair. Her papa alone was cool and collected.
"She has run away so many times," said he, quietly, "that I have no doubt
she will come home safely, as always before."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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