the birch-bark; and those things that Mummy called bad people are
my beavers. I drawded them to show him the way through the swamp;
and I drawded Mummy at the mouth of the Cave looking pleased
because he is a nice Stranger-man, and I think you are just the
stupidest people in the world,' said Taffy. 'He is a very nice
man. Why have you filled his hair with mud? Wash him!'

Nobody said anything at all for a longtime, till the Head Chief
laughed; then the Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara)
laughed; then Tegumai laughed till he fell down flat on the bank;
then all the Tribe laughed more and worse and louder. The only
people who did not laugh were Teshumai Tewindrow and all the
Neolithic ladies. They were very polite to all their husbands,
and said 'Idiot!' ever so often.

Then the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai cried and said and sang,
'O Small-person-with-out-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked,
you've hit upon a great invention!'

'I didn't intend to; I only wanted Daddy's black-handled spear,'
said Taffy.

'Never mind. It is a great invention, and some day men will call
it writing. At present it is only pictures, and, as we have seen
to-day, pictures are not always properly understood. But a time
will come, O Babe of Tegumai, when we shall make letters--all
twenty-six of 'em,--and when we shall be able to read as well as
to write, and then we shall always say exactly what we mean
without any mistakes. Let the Neolithic ladies wash the mud out
of the stranger's hair.'