Here the great yellow light flared all the time, and every one of the
noisy creatures at whose hands he endured so much was within a few
feet of him.

So he lifted up his voice and wept. And when he found weeping did not
produce his gold-barred cot, and the little dangling tassels on the
mosquito nets, he raised his voice two notes, and when even there
Esther only went on patting his shoulder in a soothing way he burst
into roars absolutely deafening.

Nellie dangled all her long curls in his face to engage his
attention, but he clutched them viciously and pulled till the tears
came into her eyes. Esther and Meg sang lullabies till their tongues
ached, Judy tried walking him up and down the narrow space, but he
stiffened himself in her arms, and she was not strong enough to hold
him. Finally he dropped off into an exhausted sleep, drawing deep,
sobbing breaths and little hiccoughs of sorrow.

Then Bunty was discovered asleep on the floor with his head under a seat,
and had to be lifted into an easier position; and Baby, bolt upright
in a corner, was nodding like a little pink-and-white daisy the sun has
been too much for.

One by one the long hours dragged away; farther and farther through
the silent, sleeping country flew the red-eyed train, swerving round
zigzag curves, slackening up steeper places, flashing across the
endless stretching plains.

The blackness grew grey and paler grey, and miles and miles of