CHAPTER I
THE DANCING CLASS
Ever since she had been a baby--a good long while, for she was more thaneight years old--it had always troubled the heart of Baby Jane to hear,and later on to read, how rough and rude and wretched the wild beastsand niggers of the African desert were.
The black children _always_ came down to breakfast without theirpinafores on, and ate with their fingers, and never washed--though,perhaps, that did not matter, as they had to be black anyhow--and werealtogether naughty and, therefore, very miserable.
And the wild beasts did nothing but kill and eat until the sand wasstrewn with poor white bones that had once belonged to little boundinggazelles, and missionaries, and gentle, spotted giraffes, and monkeys.At night the big ones had no cosy stables, and the little ones nobasket with a rug in it; so they wandered about in the cold woods androared and went on eating things.
And all this unhappiness was because there was no one to teach them andlook after them. Poor creatures! If only they knew of all the fun therewas to be had--dancing and games and the rest--they would no longerspend their time so miserably.
And this was why Baby Jane came to Africa.
Stories of mere travels are often very dull, so I will not bother youwith the long account of how she got there.
Now, dancing was the amusement that Baby Jane thought pleasantest; soupon the stem of a shady palm beside a gurgling stream that ran throughthe middle of the wide, white desert, she stuck up a notice:
_Dancing Lessons Given. Nobody need Pay Anything._
And then sat down to wait for pupils.
By and bye a big brown Bear, holding a green-lined umbrella over him andsmoking a great drooping German pipe, came strolling along. He saw thenotice board and stared at it a long time as if he were reading, thenhe turned towards Baby Jane and stood there smiling in a friendly, butrather silly way.
The Bear looked up at the sky and began whistling.]
She thought he was considering how he should ask about the dancinglessons, but he only said, with an air of joyful pride--
'What do you think of my pipe and my umbrella?'
'Where did you get them?' asked Baby Jane, fixing her round grey eyesseverely upon him.
The Bear looked up at the sky and began whistling, pretending not tohear, but his ears grew very red.
'Where did you get them?' asked Baby Jane again.
Then the Bear gave up his pretence of deafness and blurted out hisexcuses.
'Well, he _would_ talk German, and you cannot believe how fat he was!'
'But even then you should not have eaten him,' said Baby Jane, guessingthe part of the story that he had left untold.
The Bear looked very crestfallen, and tender-hearted Baby Jane felt sosorry to have had to spoil his pleasure, that she changed the subjectaltogether.
'Shall I teach you how to dance?' she said sweetly. 'It's great fun.'
The Bear was quite delighted with the idea, and wanted to begin at once,but Baby Jane said she would collect a little class before she began.
'Come along!' said the Bear excitedly; 'I know some more. Jump on myback!'
And off he set. Every now and then he would give a funny little clumsyhop and ask her, 'Is that how you dance?' as if he were thinking of thecoming pleasure all the time.
During one of these quaint little capers he stumbled heavily.
'Drat that Rabbit!' he said. 'He's always digging his nasty holes allover the place.'
Up popped a little fluffy head.]
From another hole a yard or two away, up popped a little fluffy head,and a squeaky voice said--
'Drat that Bear! He's always dropping his clumsy paws down my area.'
By a swift dart, the Bear knocked the Rabbit out of his hole and fixedhim on the sand under his great paw.
'Looks as if I was going to be eaten,' said the Rabbit, trying to speakcheerfully, though his pretty black eyes were very moist. 'It's rather abad day for being eaten--so sunny and fresh, and all the young shootsare just sprouting now, and I was just going out with Fluffie'; and heburied his little nose in the sand.
'If you did happen to want to let me go this once,' he said, in amuffled, jerky voice, 'I wouldn't be saucy any more. But it doesn'tmatter.'
'Eaten?' cried Baby Jane, choking with tears; and she slid over theBear's shoulder into a heap upon the ground beside the imprisonedRabbit, and struggled to force her little slim fingers between it andthe great paw, and she succeeded. Perhaps the Bear was ashamed, andallowed it.
Then she hugged the rescued one close in her arms, with his fluffy headbetween her little motherly shoulder and neck, and, sobbing, rocked toand fro, making his drab fur quite draggled with her tear-drops.
'And he shall learn to dance--so he shall, the dear,' said Baby Janewhen her sobs had died away into an occasional sniff, and her mind hadturned to more cheerful ideas.
'Such a fuss about a Rabbit,' said the Bear under his breath. 'Why, Ieat rabbits spread on my bread-and-butter like shrimps.'
Then, in a louder voice, he said sulkily--'Here comes the Lion: he looksas if he wanted to learn to dance.'
As a matter of fact, the Lion looked very cross.
'Mornin'!' said the Bear genially as he approached. 'We were just comingto teach you which hand to use when you say, "Howdy-doo," and how toplay "Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush," and how to dance "Sir Rogerde Coverley."'
The Lion could not speak for rage, but sharpened his claws once or twiceon the sand and then charged.
It was a terrible struggle. The great beasts clutched one another roundthe waist and wrestled furiously. The Lion made frantic attempts totwist his leg between the Bear's two and so overthrow him, but the Bearwas as firm as a rock.
Then the Lion let go, and, retreating for about thirty yards, flunghimself from that distance at his enemy.
If he had been struck, the Bear must have been knocked headlong; but hestooped, and the Lion passed over him and fell upon his back some twentyyards farther on. Before he could get up, the Bear was upon him.
'Oh, you will suffocate him!' cried Baby Jane, and, indeed, it seemedlikely, for all of the Lion that was not covered by the Bear was seen tobe in violent motion.
The Lion flung himself ... at his enemy.]
But instead of showing any sympathy for his fallen foe, the Bear hit hima sounding thump on the ribs.
'He's trying to bite,' he explained. 'I'll let him up when he says he'lllearn to dance.'
'Get off my head,' said the Lion in smothered tones.
'Oh, Lion, say you will!' pleaded Baby Jane. 'Get off my head,' said theLion.
'Get off my head,' said the Lion.]
'Do as the young lady tells you,' said the Bear.
'Get off my head.'
'I will promise for him, Bear,' cried Baby Jane in despair.
'Oh, all right,' said the Bear, and he arose.
The Lion got up, looking very crushed and humble. He came crawling toBaby Jane, and said--
'You saved me from being smothered, for I could never have obeyed thatBear; but I _will_ learn to dance if _you_ wish it.'
Looking very crushed and humble.]
'That's right,' said Baby Jane briskly. 'Now we only want two more tomake a big enough class.'
'I know of another,' said the Bear, following Baby Jane's cheerful lead,and off he set for a distant bend of the little river.
Very soon, with an amiable-looking lady Crocodile on his arm, he camepacing back.
Although the lady Crocodile looked amiable, she seemed rather stupid,and would answer no questions, but only smiled. Baby Jane noticed thatshe seemed to have something on her mind--or in her mouth--and so itproved, for when the Bear whispered something funny in her ear and madeher laugh out loud, a little nigger boy dropped out of her mouth.
With an amiable-looking lady Crocodile on his arm.]
Baby Jane was horrified, but still the little nigger was safe, now, andto make a fuss would break up the
whole party; so she said calmly--
'That makes six; now we can begin.'
For a class-room she chose a smooth patch of sand with no stones on it.
'Sit down in a row,' she said; 'the Bear and I will first show you a fewsteps of the Gavotte.'
While she was doing up her hair into a knot--an arrangement that sheconsidered indispensable for that dance--the Bear stood brushing hisbeautiful fur and preening himself like a clumsy canary, and thenshambled up looking very nervous. The others sat down awkwardly besideone another, trying to be at their ease, but they were the oddest row ofcreatures that ever sat down together, and not very likely to befriendly. However, the Piccaninny and the Rabbit soon began a firmfriendship by playfully jogging one another over.
'Now!' said Baby Jane to the Bear, rather sternly, to cover theuncertainty she herself felt in teaching the Gavotte. 'Take my hand.One--two--three!'
'Oh, please, please stop,' said the Bear, 'I have got my legs so mixed.Which is my right foot?'
And, indeed, you could hardly imagine how those short legs could havegot in such a muddle.
'Please tread on those toes,' he asked Baby Jane. 'No--those over here,and then I shall know by the feel which is which.'
Baby Jane trod lightly.
'Left!' shouted the Bear. 'That is just as I thought!'
But, even having found out which was which, it took a little time andthe use of a palm branch as a lever to unmix them.
'I have got my legs so mixed.']
After this the Bear did much better, and, indeed, put on quite a daintypowder-and-brocade air.
All this while the others were turning slowly from a state of wonderingadmiration to fidgetiness, and the Rabbit and the Piccaninny werebeginning to grow rough; so Baby Jane thought of something thateverybody would like.
'Now,' said she, 'I will teach you an easy Highland Schottische step.'
It was simply astounding--the way those creatures picked it up. As forthe Lion, for whom she made a little kilt and sporran of palm leaves tomake him more real, you could not believe how like a true Scot helooked, and how Scottishly he bounded in the air and snapped his fingersand yapped--you would hear no wilder yap in the Highlands.
Of course the Bear had a mishap. It was through treading on theCrocodile's tail that he came down on a poor little Porcupine who hadcrept out from a neighbouring cactus thicket and was dancing a littlefling all by himself. However, the Porcupine was not really hurt exceptthat he came out quite smooth--all his bristles having stuck in theBear. But, apart from this, everybody enjoyed it immensely. To be sure,they had to sing the tune themselves, but that added to the fun.
'There's something else just as nice!' cried Baby Jane when they hadstopped, breathless, but eager for more. Then, with the Lion, she ledoff in the Washington Post.
The Washington Post.]
Speak not of dancing in a room. What room is large enough when theromping begins? What you want is a good large desert. That is what BabyJane and her pupils had, and it was grand. The Lion bounced so high thatBaby Jane was swung about like a leaf on a bough on a windy day, and hadnothing to do but waggle her toes in the air.
Afterwards, all rather tired, the creatures came and Baby Jane arrangedthem round her, the Lion and the Bear on each side with her arms roundtheir necks, the Piccaninny and the Rabbit at her feet with their littleheads on her knees, and the Crocodile round the whole party like arampart.
'Isn't that better than being cruel, dears, and going about roaring andfighting?' asked Baby Jane.
'Lots!' said the Lion, and the others all grunted approval.
And Baby Jane went to sleep in the midst of her pupils very proud andhappy, for she knew now that her plan would really work, and had foundwhat dears wild beasts were when you only knew them.
Baby Jane's Mission Page 3