Page:Wren--The young stagers.djvu/194

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176
THE YOUNG STAGERS

drowned if they didn't buck up and build boats to get into. But they said, 'Abhi nahin'[1] and 'Kal,'[2] and it rained and rained. And Noah Sahib, he went out in the wet and built a Noah's Ark. Norful big, it was, because he was going to thave Noah Memsahib and the chota[3] Noah Sahibs and chota Noah Miss-sahibs, and the butler and second-boy and cook and hamal and chokra and ayah and syces—I don't know about the sweeper—and all the people in his compound, and two of every kind of animal in the world! . . . He took two in case one got lost or drowned or anything—and he'd still have one left of that thort. . . ."

"He had a long way to go for Polar Bears and Kangaroos, didn't he?" interrupted Desdemona, "and I've heard a tale very like this before."

"I fetched the Polar Bears and Kangaroos," replied Othello modestly, "and all the uvver long-way-off beathts, while Noah Sahib got on with the Noah's Ark."

  1. Not now.
  2. To-morrow.
  3. Little.