CHAPTER IV

OLD JANIES _v._ JUNIOR OAKDENE ATHLETIC

'Do you know,' said the Lion suddenly to Baby Jane the next day, 'we are growing very fat.'

It was certainly true, though he took in a big breath and puffed out his cheeks to make it seem worse.

'Tableaux and Tom Tiddler's Ground don't give us enough exercise,' he went on.

This remark made Baby Jane sad and thoughtful.

'Oh, I wish I were a boy,' she said, 'and could teach you big rough games. No wonder you strong creatures think my girls' games silly; and you would be more fond of me if I were a boy.'

Then she hung her head and pinched a bit of silk out of the pattern on her frock.

All the other creatures glowered at the Lion for his stupidity, and he allowed all the breath to go out of him, and collapsed into a very mean, awkward-looking animal; but after a little shuffling he began bounding round the little girl with the wildest show of gaiety, licking her face and patting her with his paws to coax her to hold up her head and come for a romp. The other creatures gradually allowed their scowls to soften into grins, and joined in the dance.

Baby Jane turned away her head for a moment to rub her eyes, and then held out her arms and put them round the Lion's neck.

'Oh, you are dears,' she said, 'and I'll try hard to remember some big boys' game. I did use to crawl through the hedge and play football with the Williamson boys in the next garden to ours, but it always ended so soon. They always used to charge me and knock me into the laurel-bushes, and then I used to run back crying with bruises on my legs, and my frock all earthy, and when I complained of them to Mother she used to punish me. That always happened. But I'll try to remember--I'll try to remember.'

She sat staring anxiously at the sky for some minutes.

'Yes,' she cried, 'I remember--oh, I am glad!'

'Now, you all go out and get a lot of animals to play against us--gently, mind!--coax them; tell them it is splendid fun--and I will teach you football.'

It was a very quaint set of animals that shyly allowed themselves to be led up. They were mostly ostriches and ant-eaters, with a sprinkling of elephants, hippopotamuses, and such-like.

But they grew more interested and less self-conscious when Baby Jane showed them how to fix up two posts at each end of the chosen ground, and explained how each side had to try to kick the ball between the other side's posts.

'And one side must be called the "Old Somethings,"' she told them, 'so we will be the "Old Janies," and the other side must be the "Junior Something Athletic," so you shall be the "Junior Oakdene Athletic," and that is all I know, except that one player must be called "full back," and another "left wing." Rabbit, you are our "left wing," and you, Lion, are our "full back."'

These two creatures flushed with pride to be picked out for these honours.

A little rattlesnake had wanted to play too, but he had no legs so they made him the umpire.

It was the sound of his rattle that began the game, and at that signal the two teams rushed upon the cocoa-nut--that was what they used for a ball.

The first to distinguish himself was an agile young elephant, who, with the ball before him, dodged in and out among the Old Janies with terrible skill, every moment getting nearer to their goal. At last only a few yards remained, and with agonised faces Baby Jane's team looked for the last fatal kick.

Then suddenly there was a squeak and a flash of brown fur. Struck full upon the chest, the Elephant went crashing down. The Rabbit had charged him with the dash and fury of a regiment of cavalry, and the goal was saved.

But no; not yet! On came the enemy again, and the Rabbit's splendid deed seemed all in vain. Struggling like heroes, Jane's men were forced back, until at last by sheer weight they were driven headlong into their own goal.

The Junior Oakdene Athletic raised a shout of triumph, but it died away in doubt and disappointment. The ball had disappeared, and there was nothing to show that they had sent it between Jane's goal-posts.

They made an anxious search all over the ground. Miss Crocodile seemed to think that it might be at the other end of the field, and she went there to look for it. Nobody thought it possible, and yet, when she had got within easy distance of the enemy's goal, there it was just under her nose. With a deft kick she shot it between the posts. The Old Janies had won a goal!

The Junior Oakdene Athletic did not take their misfortunes like men. Indeed, they said that Miss Crocodile had had the ball in her mouth all the time. But the enemy soon brought the ball back close to Baby Jane's end of the field, and, in spite of the goal her side had won, the game seemed hopeless.

Then Baby Jane saw a gap in the ranks of the foe, and out she shot with the ball before her, and went scampering up the field with a puffing crowd at her heels.

And away on her right out shot the Rabbit, and keeping level with her at a distance of twenty yards, he scuttled desperately.

Whenever Baby Jane was pressed she neatly patted the ball to the 'left wing,' and when he felt two or three elephants and an ostrich or so close upon him he passed it back to her.

In a moment there was no one but the Junior Oakdene Athletic 'full back,' a burly Hippopotamus, to be passed. He went out to meet the Rabbit. There was a scuffle, and the Hippopotamus arose, alone, slowly and heavily, a very full back indeed.

Baby Jane stood as if frozen, and as pale as snow.

Her Rabbit gone? It was impossible. The world would be empty without the Rabbit.

Just as she had begun to be sure that he had been eaten, the Hippopotamus put on a pained, choky expression, and opened his mouth a little.

Out popped the Rabbit's head and forepaws. Twisting round and resting the paws on the Hippopotamus's nose he poured upon that animal a shrill torrent of bad language, ending thus:

'Swallow me, would you? Ha, ha! I like that! I've burrowed in bigger hills than you before now, though in none so ugly. Swallow me! Why, for two pins I'd burrow back of my own accord, and make you believe that you had bolted twenty helps of crab and crumpets and cream.'

Here he made a pretence of darting back into the Hippopotamus's mouth, which so alarmed that animal that he gave a violent whistle, and out flew the Rabbit like a pea from a pea-shooter, and rolled far along the sand, which stuck to his damp fur, so that he arose like a little walking sand-pie.

All this while the Light-Horse was sitting unnoticed on the cocoa-nut in the middle of the Junior Oakdene's goal whistling a sad little melody to himself.

Two goals for the Old Janies!

At this the other team were so disgusted that they marched off the field and disappeared.

'I see trouble in the air,' said the Light-Horse, looking darkly from under her eyebrows. 'Since the fame of Princess Jane has spread around there have been stealthy gatherings, every day growing greater, in yonder Black Mountains. All the worst characters of the Desert are there. I heard mutterings among the defeated band. The triumph of the "Janies" this day will set a match to the powder. I see trouble in the air!'

'She wants her dinner, that is all,' said the others, and certainly at the sound of the word dinner, the Light-Horse looked much brighter.

The ending of the football match had made Baby Jane a little sad, but during dinner a happy thought struck her.

'This afternoon we'll go fox-hunting,' she said.

'Hurray!' shouted the creatures in chorus.

'Now, who will be my horse?' said Baby Jane.

All the creatures cried out at once. The Rabbit was the most eager of all. He left his place, and, rushing round to Baby Jane, humped his back and begged her to try him.

'The Rabbit had better be the "Fox,"' said Miss Crocodile, with her mouth full (which, by the way, was saying a good deal). 'Why, he isn't strong enough to----'

'Strong!' squeaked the indignant Rabbit. 'Huh! I'll box any three of you,' and he put himself in a fighting attitude, and bounced up and down like an india-rubber ball in front of the creatures, who had now risen. With his palm-leaf bib flapping as he bounced he looked very absurd.

'Oh, no larks!' he said more gently. 'You can hunt my clockwork mouse if you like, but mind he doesn't turn nasty and hunt _you!_'

After a little persuasion, however, he consented to be the 'Fox,' and Miss Crocodile beguiled a dozen little nephews and nieces from the rivers, by the promise of an apricot each if they were good, to be the hounds.

It was a splendid afternoon, with little clouds, warmed by the yellow sunlight, romping like lambs across the blue sky-fields, and the sound of a pleasant wind in the shady palms.

The awkward affair of the football match was forgotten, and four eager steeds of various shapes pawed the ground, while Miss Crocodile's nephews and nieces were barking very respectably at the Rabbit, who sat making faces at them from a little distance.

The Light-Horse had wanted to ride, but finally had to go alone on foot, wearing a sash to show that she was not a horse.

It was some time before Baby Jane could make the Rabbit start--he would try to be funny, but at last he set off.

Then from the huntsmen and horses there arose a thrilling shout, and a yapping from the pack as they streamed away after the 'Fox.'

Tally-ho! Hark, forward!

Now the little river appeared before them. Baby Jane was very much afraid the Rabbit would refuse to wet his paws by trying to jump it, but he took it bravely, and the nephews and nieces went splashing after him. Baby Jane upon the Lion gave a scream of delight as he cleared the brook with a mighty bound, like the flight of a swallow. The Light-Horse landed heavily beside them, and raced them neck and neck across the plain. Not far behind, the Bear and the Crocodile were also running a desperate race. Of course the terrible pace soon began to tire the nephews and nieces, and some of them sobbed loudly as they ran.

After a while the Rabbit, who had got some way ahead, had dived into a clump of trees, and they had no doubt that he was now galloping away on the far side, so they plunged in one after another.

Suddenly from behind a tree right in front of them there emerged an awful little bogey. It seemed to have enormous military moustaches, and upon its head was a wild wreath. The nephews and nieces at once went into hysterics, and the hunters collapsed backwards in a neat line like a set of dominoes--all shrieking horribly.

'Do you know,' said the Rabbit calmly--for it was he--taking the feathers out of his mouth and removing his head-dress, 'I'm getting rather tired of this game. I don't think it's so very good.'

But he had to cut short his remarks, for the hunters, horses, and hounds arose and rushed at him in a body, and continued the chase in grim earnest, Baby Jane leading on foot with a switch in her hand, and the Light-Horse and the Lion close behind her, in a state of boiling indignation.

By-and-bye they all stopped, out of breath, and noticed, for the first time, how near to the foot of the mountains their long hunt had taken them.

They felt tired, and the weather had now changed. Misty clouds, drizzling faintly, had come driving up on the wind, and had so wrapped themselves round the heights as almost to hide them. But now and then, when the wind tore the fleecy mist, Baby Jane could see a jagged mountain-top appear high up in the sky, where she had never expected it. These were the mysterious Black Mountains to which the Light-Horse had referred a little while ago. As they all looked, they recalled her words of warning, 'All the worst characters of the Desert are there.'

The lower slopes of the mountains were only dimmed and made grey by the drizzle.

There was something strange about them. Was that movement only the passing of the wind over the long grass? But the rivers of movement that flash across the grass go one way--the way of the wind--and in the strange greyness that clothed the hillside, there was a troubled swaying and eddying every way.

Then the wind held its breath for a moment, as if it, too, had caught sight of the strange thing, and out of the mountains a draught came creeping back, and bore with it the mingled wail and shriek and yell of ten thousand savage animals.

As they watched with their blood running cold and their hearts thumping heavily, the swirling greyness began to slide down the hillside towards them, and then a misty cloud dipped lower and hid it.

Most of the creatures were too frightened to know what to do--only the Lion, the Bear, and the Light-Horse remained calm. The Light-Horse, indeed, even took a gloomy pleasure in having prophesied truly.

As for Baby Jane, she squeezed herself close to the Bear, and, hiding her face in his fur, trembled and sobbed. She did not want to be a Princess any more. She wanted only to be protected.

'Bear,' said the Lion sharply, 'take her home. You others, keep round him. I'll come on behind. Now, with all your might, gallop!'

And so they went flying home, the Light-Horse with all the twelve nephews and nieces crowded upon her back.

It was a delicious comfort and relief to be once again in their great hollow bush, through which no enemy could break. They stopped up the entrance of the tunnel from within with branches and leaves, so that no one could guess that the bush was hollow.

Before Baby Jane went to sleep, nestling close to the Bear, she saw the Lion yawn and stretch himself, not as if he were tired, but as if to pull the twists out of his muscles to be ready for work, if need be. Then he went and lay down in the tunnel.