“If—if we could just get word to the General,” whispered the Lady of Fashion, “he’d bring the army and come after these—these wild men and rescue us.”

“There’s no chance of writing a note and dropping it somewhere, with our hands tied behind us.”

“I’ll tell you what we can do,” whispered the Lady of Fashion. “If we should see a bird we can call to it and ask it to tell the General that we have been captured.”

But the two Teenie Weenies never came close enough to a bird all that day, for the wild men paddled their canoe near the shore of the creek under the cover of the overhanging ferns and grass.

The Queen of the Wild Men, sitting on the back of her turtle.—Chapter Five.

The Queen of the Wild Men, sitting on the back of her turtle.—Chapter Five.

The Queen of the Wild Men, sitting on the back of her turtle.

As the canoe floated along down the stream the Lady of Fashion and the Poet spent their time studying the strange little wild men, or Saboes, as they were called. They were sturdily built little chaps, but a trifle smaller than the Teenie Weenies. They had dark brown skins, bushy hair, and around their fierce-looking eyes were painted circles of white. One or two of the wild men wore shirts with skirts almost to their knees, but the most of them were dressed only in trousers which were made from the skins of young frogs. Their spears were made of long sticks with a sharp fish bone tied to the end, and several of them carried bows and arrows, while their war clubs were made by fastening sharp blackberry thorns to a short handle. Many of the little wild men wore strings of beautifully carved raspberry beads about their necks and arms, which the little fellows called “gum gum,” the Sabo name for money.

The canoe, which the little men paddled very skillfully, was made from a huge cucumber, and on the end of the boat was painted a queer face. This face was supposed to look like a cat and was meant to frighten the Saboes’ enemies.

When evening came on and it began to grow dark, the wild men stopped on a sandy beach, where they made the two Teenie Weenies understand by motions that they would rest a while.

Several of the Saboes bent over the stem of a tall dandelion, while one of the little men gathered an armful of the soft, fluffy down, which he put on the ground and covered with dry grass and 

 Prev. P 4/51 next