The Opelousas courier., 1900-05-05
THE DREAM RIDE OF A BOY.
Az Adventure after Meeting TITO Indian Juygtears.

@NAANl>AeANSAN~NAN
The shooting party had gone ava,
and left aight-year-o!d Freddie behint
tofhis great. disgust. 1t was just abou
sunrise, the coolest, incest time o. da,
insIndia, and his mother was not We
ups and the servants, were busy else
where, 80 there was nobody to pre-
vent ,hI4 from wandering to til,
boundary Of the tea plantation. Their,
heobseryed Of a sudden a quite unex
pasted and amazing sight. ats,:~.t
Two brown men, one. quite old :an6
the other quite young, were in the
shadow, of the trees. They wer,
stripped to the waist, and the old mar
wpre Q cummerbund and sandals, while
the young, wiry mans legs and feet
wekaahase&sTE ae safdnanS4xas evident.
" ~instructing the younger and super.
ylsing 9 lesson far more interesting ia
Freddie. than the worrying i~ntricacies
of thearsading book and multiplication
table. Fish, FASH Flickerty, flick!
lint the all, glancing in the mornings
slanting sunbeams, quivered a prodi-
gious number Of knives. They must
sometimes have touched the juggler's
hands, but so deity did the man fin.
ger them that the knives darted about
his head and body like a swarm OF
great dragon flies, grazing his ears,
soaring above his turban, swooping to
bis knees, but never by any accident
touching the ground until, with q
swift clatter and a clash, they all came
together in the juggler's grasp, and
he laid them down..
Now, the little boys eyes and mouth
were soon very wide open indeed, and
when the feat was over, his uncon-
scious legs had borne him, step by
step, right up TO the iugglers, where
his brown hair and pale face and
pretty suit of snow white duck con-
trasted strangely with their 3usky
skins and bright black eyes and cloths
Of glowing colors. He was immensely
interested and rather awed, but by no
means afraid. for he had been born
in India and was accustomed to COM
mune in q lordly manner with all sorts
Of natives. Even travelling iugglers
were not unknown to him. So when
the swarthy men salaamed humbly to
the little sahib, the boy acknowledged
their salute and said, with the simple
directness of one used to being
obeyed:
"Doit again"
The older man turned to the boy at
once with an air of having expected
him, and smiled and salaamed very
Low in quite a gratifed way. They
obeyed him Mt once, and the young
native began to perform even more
amusing tricks. 1t was almost terri
but the curious and rather nm
nerving thing was that the old juggler
never seemed to take his eyes of the
boy. The old mar gave him a mat to
sit on, and smiled into his face with
great piercing eyes, and told him to
be good and he would see what he
would see. The old man then took q
mango stone from a basket, and care
fully planted ii. Then he covered the
spot for an instant with the basket,
and there was the young plant already
eprouting from the earth. Freddie
gasped, and the plant grew and grew
right before his eyes. It grew and il
grew and it grew. until in q very short !
lime it wasa tree. Then it spread
and it spread, and. had many branches |
and leaves, and at last little mangoes |
began TO appear, and they grew and
in q marvellous way, until the
fakir piucked o big juicy one and gave
It to the boy, who ate ID and found il
delicious. Then the iuggler waved
hands and-the tree was gone.
Goodness me!',. cried Freddie, 81
don't see how that was DONE"
The old juggler smiled again and
took. q coil of rope from the wonderful
It was a very ordinary rope,
Just, intact, a wash line. But Che
'akir threw one end OF the coil far up, |
md the m~arvelling boy saw that the
'ope spun slowly out, up and up tow
the sky, quite straight as il some
1ne we're hauling at the upper. end.
Il went up and up until the end van
hedaltogether.
'GiAcious goodyl' cried Freddie.
Il don't Q how that was doHe!.
The old man clapped his hands,
md the young maj leaped at the rope
It once and seized il and began TO
limb up, hand over hand, alta ire
aendous rate, and he went up and MP
md up until he also was out Of sight.
81 never, never didin cried Freddie.
VIC. was now, limp with amazement. |.
Where did he go to?"
Wherever he wished to 60" theI
said. docs the sahib wish to4
10, anywhere?'
Yes cried Freddie with . sudden
lappy thought Where my papa
nd uncle are hunting"
In : moment the iugglsr placed the
ope il his hands.
Climb, said be. and without taxi
NC time to think freddie climbed.
just how and when it happened
hat he let 30 of the rope be could not
oil. but without any trouble to hira-
elf he suddenly found that the rope
Iad disappeared, and lie was standing /,
9 . great compound beside a river.
81 the river banks were great stacks !,
I lumber. and b small army 81 ala- i
each in charge of 4 mahout ]
perched on the brute's neck, was
Up huge logs ana carrying
hem, according to their length and
hickneas. to- other ataaka whara Yl,a