(14.)

[Illustration: 14]

[Illustration: 15]

[Illustration: 16]

'The very thing,' said Tegumai. 'That's _la_ all over. It isn't like any
of the other marks, either.' And he drew this. (15.)

'Now for _ya_. Oh, we've done that before. Now for _maru_.
_Mum-mum-mum_. _Mum_ shuts one's mouth up, doesn't it? We'll draw a shut
mouth like this.' And he drew. (16.)

'Then the carp-mouth open. That makes _Ma-ma-ma!_ But what about this
_rrrrr_-thing, Taffy?'

'It sounds all rough and edgy, like your shark-tooth saw when you're
cutting out a plank for the canoe,' said Taffy.

'You mean all sharp at the edges, like this?' said Tegumai. And he drew.
(17.)

[Illustration: 17]

''Xactly,' said Taffy. 'But we don't want all those teeth: only put
two.'

'I'll only put in one,' said Tegumai. 'If this game of ours is going to
be what I think it will, the easier we make our sound-pictures the
better for everybody.' And he drew. (18.)

[Illustration: 18]

'_Now_ we've got it,' said Tegumai, standing on one leg. 'I'll draw 'em
all in a string like fish.'

'Hadn't we better put a little bit of stick or something between each
word, so's they won't rub up against each other and jostle, same as if
they were carps?'

'Oh, I'll leave a space for that,' said her Daddy. And very incitedly he
drew them all without stopping, on a big new bit of birch-bark. (19.)

'_Shu-ya-las ya-maru_,' said Taffy, reading it out sound by sound.

[Illustration]

'That's enough for to-day,' said Tegumai. 'Besides, you're getting
tired, Taffy. Never mind, dear. We'll finish it all to-morrow, and then
we'll be remembered for years and years after the biggest trees you can
see are all chopped up for firewood.'

So they went home, and all that evening Tegumai sat on one side of the
fire and Taffy on the other, drawing _ya's_ and _yo's_ and _shu's_ and
_shi's_ in the smoke on the wall and giggling together till her Mummy
said, 'Really, Tegumai, you're worse than my Taffy.'

'Please don't mind,' said Taffy. 'It's only our secret-s'prise, Mummy
dear, and we'll tell you all about it the very minute it's done; but
_please_ don't ask me what it is now, or else I'll have to tell.'

So her Mummy most carefully didn't; and bright and early next morning
Tegumai went down to the river to think about new sound-pictures, and
when Taffy got up she saw _Ya-las_ (water is ending or running out)
chalked on the side of the big stone water-tank, outside the