breakfast Bab-ba threw bread crumbs out
to the little birds on the lawn, and they used to sit in the
trees and watch for him, and sing about him till he came out
of the house. "Good little Bab-ba, who gives us our food,"
one would sing; and "We all love little Bab-ba," several of
the others would reply from another part of the garden.

Mioux-Mioux used to watch them out of the corner of her
eyes, but she never attempted to catch them because she knew
that Bab-ba loved them; and Wooff-Wooff used to sit with his
head on one side and wonder however they managed with only
two legs and not four like his.

But one day when Bab-ba was feeding the birdies, the big
snake Hoodo, who lived in the garden, came creeping under
the verandah and tried to catch some of the birds while they
were eating, but Bab-ba saw him and called out!--

"Go away, bad Hoodo, go away!"

and his Ayah heard him and came running out to see what was
the matter.

[Illustration]

When she saw Hoodo, the big snake, she caught Bab-ba up in
her arms and ran with him into the house, and two of the men
servants came out with big sticks and beat Hoodo over the
head and body till he could hardly crawl away again into his
hole under a big tree in the garden.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Now Hoodo was a very wicked snake, and was very angry about
all this, and he thought and thought about it, and wondered
how he could be revenged on little Bab-ba, for he put all
that had occurred down to him, and so one day, after he had
got better he went out into the jungle to see an old friend
of his, Tig, the Tiger, and talk the matter over with him.

Hoodo thought that Tig the Tiger was as greedy and cruel as
he was himself, and so he asked him how he would like a
little white fat baby boy for his dinner, and Tig licked his
lips and said, "H'M! we shall see."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Then Hoodo went further into the jungle and met Prowl, the
Wolf.

"How would you like a little fat white baby to eat?" asked
Hoodo; and Prowl, the Wolf, licked his lips and said, "Ha!"
and nothing else.

[Illustration]

A little further on Hoodo met Bluf, the big brown Bear, and
he asked him what he would do if he met a little fat white
baby in the jungle.

And Bluf stood up on his hind legs, hugged himself and said,
"Ough! Very nice, very nice indeed!"

And then Poon-dah, the big wild Elephant, came crushing
through the jungle, and Hoodo had to scurry