was lucky,
Tahuti's father would pierce a fish with either prong of the spear, and
then there was great excitement.

But still more interesting was the fowling among the marshes. The spears
were laid aside on this kind of expedition, and instead, Tahuti and his
father were armed with curved throw-sticks, shaped something like an
Australian boomerang. But, besides the throw-sticks, they had with them
a rather unusual helper. When people go shooting nowadays, they take
dogs with them to retrieve the game. Well, the Egyptians had different
kinds of dogs, too, which they used for hunting; but when they went
fowling they took with them a cat which was trained to catch the wounded
birds and bring them to her master. The little skiff was paddled
cautiously across the marsh, and in among the reeds where the wild ducks
and other waterfowl lived, Sen-senb and her mother holding on to the
tall papyrus plants and pulling them aside to make room for the boat, or
plucking the beautiful lotus-lilies, of which the Egyptians were so
fond. When the birds rose, Tahuti and his father let fly their
throw-sticks, and when a bird was knocked down, the cat, which had been
sitting quietly in the bow of the boat, dashed forward among the reeds
and secured the fluttering creature before it could escape.

[Illustration: PLATE 8.
"AND THE GOOSE STOOD UP AND CACKLED."]

Altogether, it was great fun for the brother and sister, as well as for
the grown folks, and Tahuti and Sen-senb liked nothing so well as when
the gaily-painted little skiff was launched for a day on the marshes. I
think that, on the whole, they had a very bright and happy life in these
old days, and that, though they had not many of the advantages that you
have to-day, the boys and girls of three thousand years ago managed to
enjoy themselves in their own simple way quite as well as you do now.

CHAPTER VII

SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO

The little brown boys and girls who lived in Egypt three thousand years
ago were just as fond as you are of hearing wonderful stories that begin
with "Once upon a time;" and I want in this chapter to tell you some of
the tales that Tahuti and Sen-senb used to listen to in the evening when
school was over and play was done--the oldest of all wonder-tales,
stories that were old and had long been forgotten, ages before The
Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk were first thought of.

One day, when King Khufu, the great King who bui