ficulty. _So_ means "come and have dinner," but _sho_ means the
drying-poles where we hang our hides.'

'Horrid old drying-poles!' said Taffy. 'I hate helping to hang heavy,
hot, hairy hides on them. If you drew the snake and egg, and I thought
it meant dinner, and I came in from the wood and found that it meant I
was to help Mummy hang the two hides on the drying-poles, what _would_ I
do?'

'You'd be cross. So'd Mummy. We must make a new picture for _sho_. We
must draw a spotty snake that hisses _sh-sh_, and we'll play that the
plain snake only hisses _ssss_.'

'I couldn't be sure how to put in the spots,' said Taffy. 'And p'raps if
_you_ were in a hurry you might leave them out, and I'd think it was
_so_ when it was _sho_, and then Mummy would catch me just the same.
_No!_ I think we'd better draw a picture of the horrid high drying-poles
their very selves, and make _quite_ sure. I'll put them in just after
the hissy-snake. Look!' And she drew this. (10.)

[Illustration: 10]

'P'raps that's safest. It's very like our drying-poles, anyhow,' said
her Daddy, laughing. 'Now I'll make a new noise with a snake and
drying-pole sound in it. I'll say _shi_. That's Tegumai for spear,
Taffy.' And he laughed.

'Don't make fun of me,' said Taffy, as she thought of her
picture-letter and the mud in the Stranger-man's hair. '_You_ draw it,
Daddy.'

'We won't have beavers or hills this time, eh?' said her Daddy. 'I'll
just draw a straight line for my spear.' and he drew this, (11.)

[Illustration: 11]

'Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed.'

'_Please_ don't, Daddy. It makes me uncomfy. Do some more noises. We're
getting on beautifully.'

'Er-hm!' said Tegumai, looking up. 'We'll say _shu_. That means sky.'

Taffy drew the snake and the drying-pole. Then she stopped. 'We must
make a new picture for that end sound, mustn't we?'

'_Shu-shu-u-u-u!_' said her Daddy. 'Why, it's just like the
round-egg-sound made thin.'

'Then s'pose we draw a thin round egg, and pretend it's a frog that
hasn't eaten anything for years.'

'N-no,' said her Daddy. 'If we drew that in a hurry we might mistake it
for the round egg itself. _Shu-shu-shu!_ _I'll_ tell you what we'll do.
We'll open a little hole at the end of the round egg to show how the
O-noise runs out all thin, _ooo-oo-oo_. Like this.' And he drew this.
(12.)

[Illustration: 12]

'Oh, that's lovely! Much better than a thin frog. Go on,' said Taffy,
using