GEAN, THE GIRAFFE


A tall, stately, gentle creature, standing about eighteen feet high.

A pretty, graceful head; large, tender, dark eyes; a beautiful, tawny
coat, covered with rich, dark spots; a long neck; a rather short body,
measuring about seven feet in length; slender, shapely legs,
terminating in feet with divided hoofs; and a long tail, ending in a
wisp of dark-colored hair, which was a splendid thing with which to
whisk off the flies.

This was Gean, the Giraffe, and she belonged to a tribe which boasted
of the fact that they were the tallest of all animals. But they were
not aggressive about it at all, for giraffes are the most modest and
gentle creatures to be found anywhere. They are quiet and inoffensive
in all their ways and movements, shy and timid to a degree, and so
cautious and wary that it is extremely difficult to get near them in
their wild state.

Gean was just as timid and wary as the rest of her tribe; indeed, she
was peculiarly so, for she had been unfortunate enough to lose her
mother when quite young, and, deprived of that mother's care and
protection, she had experienced some very narrow escapes from many
kinds of dangers and difficulties, and these had made her suspicious
of every fresh object she came across. There were times when she was