ill he had drawn this. (13.)

'Don't look up, Taffy,' he said. 'Try if you can make out what that
means in the Tegumai language. If you can, we've found the Secret.'

'Snake--pole--broken--egg--carp--tail and carp-mouth,' said Taffy.
'Shu-ya. Sky-water (rain).' Just then a drop fell on her hand, for the
day had clouded over. 'Why, Daddy, it's raining. Was that what you meant
to tell me?'

'Of course,' said her Daddy. 'And I told it you without saying a word,
didn't I?'

'Well, I think I would have known it in a minute, but that raindrop made
me quite sure. I'll always remember now. Shu-ya means rain, or "it is
going to rain." Why, Daddy!' She got up and danced round him. 'S'pose
you went out before I was awake, and drawed shu-ya in the smoke on the
wall, I'd know it was going to rain and I'd take my beaver-skin hood.
Wouldn't Mummy be surprised?'

Tegumai got up and danced. (Daddies didn't mind doing those things in
those days.) 'More than that! More than that!' he said. 'S'pose I wanted
to tell you it wasn't going to rain much and you must come down to the
river, what would we draw? Say the words in Tegumai-talk first.'

'Shu-ya-las, ya maru. (Sky-water ending. River come to.) what a lot of
new sounds! I don't see how we can draw them.'

'But I do--but I do!' said Tegumai. 'Just attend a minute, Taffy, and
we won't do any more to-day. We've got shu-ya all right, haven't we? But
this las is a teaser. La-la-la' and he waved his shark-tooth.

'There's the hissy-snake at the end and the carp-mouth before the
snake--as-as-as. We only want la-la,' said Taffy.

'I know it, but we have to make la-la. And we're the first people in all
the world who've ever tried to do it, Taffimai!'

'Well,' said Taffy, yawning, for she was rather tired. 'Las means
breaking or finishing as well as ending, doesn't it?'

'So it does,' said Tegumai. 'To-las means that there's no water in the
tank for Mummy to cook with--just when I'm going hunting, too.'

'And shi-las means that your spear is broken. If I'd only thought of
that instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for the Stranger!'

'La! La! La!' said Tegumai, waiving his stick and frowning. 'Oh bother!'

'I could have drawn shi quite easily,' Taffy went on. 'Then I'd have
drawn your spear all broken--this way!' And she drew. (14.)

'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'