e out in the wilds."

All at once I heard Sarah's quick step, as she went out of the place,
and directly after she was busy over something.

Carelessly enough I looked up, and saw that she was beating and brushing
my father's uniform, previous to hanging it over a rail, so as to guard
it from decay by exposure to the sun.

I sat looking at the bright scarlet and gold lace, and saw that she had
brought out the cap too. Then I went on with my work again, finished
it, and with a sigh of satisfaction put all away, thinking that I would
go down to the pool and have a bathe.

The idea seemed good, and I stepped out, thinking what a patient,
industrious, careful woman Sarah was, and seeing that she must have
fetched is the uniform again, and put it away.

I went through the fence into the garden, meaning to make Pomp go with
me, but he was no longer perched on the stump, one of the many left when
the garden was made; and on looking round for Hannibal to ask where the
boy had gone, I found he too had left his work.

"Hasn't finished," I said to myself, for the man's hoe was leaning
against the tree.

Carelessly enough, I strolled on down to the bottom of the garden,
looking at the alligator's great grinning jaws as I went by, and out at
the end, to see if the pair were in the little hut that had been built
for their use, and a laugh which I heard as I drew nearer told me that I
was right as far as Hannibal was concerned, while a few excited words
which I could not make out proved that Pomp was there as well.

"What are they doing?" I thought to myself; and with the idea of giving
them a surprise, I did not go up to the door, but turned off, walked
round to the back, and parting the trees by whose leaves the place was
shadowed, I reached the little square window at the rear of the house,
and stood looking in, hardly knowing which to do--be furiously angry, or
burst out laughing.

For the moment I did neither, but stood gazing in unseen. There to my
left was Pomp, both his eyes twinkling with delight, squatting on the
floor, and holding his knees, his favourite attitude, while his thick
lips were drawn back from his milky-white teeth, from between which came
a low, half-hissing, half-humming noise evidently indicative of his
satisfaction, and in its way resembling the purring of a cat.

To my right, slowly walking up and down, with a grave display of dignity
that was most ludicrous, was Hannibal, his head erect, eye