ery
fish for twenty miles, and Tegumai thanked them in a fluid Neolithic
oration.

Then Teshumai Tewindrow ran down and kissed and hugged Taffy very much
indeed; but the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai took Tegumai by the
top-knot feathers and shook him severely.

'Explain! Explain! Explain!' cried all the Tribe of Tegumai.

'Goodness' sakes alive!' said Tegumai. 'Let go of my top-knot. Can't
a man break his carp-spear without the whole countryside descending on
him? You're a very interfering people.'

'I don't believe you've brought my Daddy's black-handled spear after
all,' said Taffy. 'And what are you doing to my nice Stranger-man?'

They were thumping him by twos and threes and tens till his eyes turned
round and round. He could only gasp and point at Taffy.

'Where are the bad people who speared you, my darling?' said Teshumai
Tewindrow.

'There weren't any,' said Tegumai. 'My only visitor this morning was the
poor fellow that you are trying to choke. Aren't you well, or are you
ill, O Tribe of Tegumai?'

'He came with a horrible picture,' said the Head Chief,--'a picture that
showed you were full of spears.'

'Er-um-Pr'aps I'd better 'splain that I gave him that picture,' said
Taffy, but she did not feel quite comfy.

'You!' said the Tribe of Tegumai all together.
'Small-person-with-no-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked! You?'

'Taffy dear, I'm afraid we're in for a little trouble,' said her Daddy,
and put his arm round her, so she didn't care.

'Explain! Explain! Explain!' said the Head Chief of the Tribe of
Tegumai, and he hopped on one foot.

'I wanted the Stranger-man to fetch Daddy's spear, so I drawded it,'
said Taffy. 'There wasn't lots of spears. There was only one spear. I
drawded it three times to make sure. I couldn't help it looking as if it
stuck into Daddy's head--there wasn't room on the birch-bark; and those
things that Mummy called bad people are my beavers. I drawded them to
show him the way through the swamp; and I drawded Mummy at the mouth of
the Cave looking pleased because he is a nice Stranger-man, and I think
you are just the stupidest people in the world,' said Taffy. 'He is a
very nice man. Why have you filled his hair with mud? Wash him!'

Nobody said anything at all for a longtime, till the Head Chief laughed;
then the Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara) laughed; then Tegumai
laughed till he fell down flat on the bank; then all the Tribe laughed
more and worse a