True Stories of Wonderful Deeds: Pictures and Stories for Little FolkAnonymous
General
True Stories of Wonderful Deeds: Pictures and Stories for Little Folk
Anonymous
Heroes -- Juvenile literature
A traveler in faraway India relates the following thrilling adventure
with a tiger: From the heavy rain which falls upon Indian mountains the
low-lying country is liable to such sudden floods that every year many
beasts, and even human beings, are drowned ere they can make their
escape to the higher grounds. On one occasion a terrible flood came up
so suddenly that I had to spend a day and night in an open canoe in
consequence, during which time I had good opportunities of seeing the
good and bad effects produced by them. I lived at the time in a mat
house, situated upon a hill which I supposed was quite above high-water
mark, but an old Mahometan gentleman having told me that, when he was a
little boy, he recollected the water once rising higher than the hill, I
took the precaution of keeping a canoe in a small ditch close at hand.
The rainy season began, and daily the river rose higher. One morning we
noticed that the mountain tops were covered with heavy banks of dark
clouds, though no rain fell out on the plain where we were; but we
noticed many animals, a leopard among others, sneak out of the high
grass and make for hilly ground. The most curious thing, however, was
the smart manner in which rats and even grasshoppers came scampering
away from the threatening danger. These latter came in such crowds
toward my bungalow that not only the fowls about the premises had a good
feed on them, but kites and crows began to swoop down in such numbers
that the air was filled with their cries and the noise of their rushing
wings.
[Illustration: AFLOAT WITH A TIGER deg.]
While watching the immense destruction of these insects we were
startled by the outbreak of the thunderstorm high up on the mountains,
but far above the peals of thunder rose the terrible sound of rushing
water. Animals now came tearing out of the lowlands too terrified to
notice whither they went, so that I stood ready, gun in hand, in case
any of the dangerous kind should try to seek an asylum on my particular
hill; but with the exception of a huge wild boar, who had to be shot as
he charged up the slope, all took refuge elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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