Nambu Bambu's Joy Ride

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21334, 29 November 1934, Page 8 (Supplement)

Nambu Bambu's Joy Ride

Nambn Bambu was always a Cleepy little negro boy, and he enjoyed nothing better than lying in the mud at the bottom of the clried-up waterholc, basking and dozing in the hot sun just like a lazy crocodile. "Bless de lazy liddle babby," his big, black mammy would say, seeing him lying there curled up in a little black ball, "let him lie dere, dere's no crocodiles 'bout for miles, and de mosquitoes, dey don't take any notice ob him," and she would go away to her hut, satisfied of her baby's safety, only calling him ■when there was a meal ready, or *Vmen nightfall came.

Now, though Nambu Bambu had heard all about crocodiles with their wicked, big, greedy mouths, he had never seen one (for he was still quite a baby), and he just used to imagine them. The great river was only just through the jungle a little way, but he couldn't remember ever having been there to see a crocodile. Sometimes he would play at crocodiles, and once he made a toy raft like the ones he had seen his big father making. One day it was looking like rain, and the heat was so close and oppressive that Nambu Bambu just couldn't keep awake—and when he did wake up, it was raining softly, and there was one of his father's longest log rafts

Hi. W. Silver)

lying beside him. "H'm,'' thought Nambu Bambu, in his intelligent, curly head, "Daddy must have put this here 'cos the river is going to swell," and he jumped excitedly on the raft and picked up a stick to pretend to push it along. Then it was that little Nambu Bambu had the greatest surprise of his little life. Suddenly the raft rose a little and started to walk! Recovering, he leant over and saw it had four, stunted, stumpy, little legs to wobble along by, and soon he made out two little twinkling eyes in the front, and heard snapping, clicking noises coming from where

a mouth might be. He couldn't really be frightened, but he was filled with wonderment. He had to bend low and hang on to the hard, scaly back as he was taken through the low, coiling undergrowth of the jungle. When he came to a great, shining mass of sluggish water that was the river, his wonderment increased. And all the time the soft rain fell, and the forest was blue-grey in the mist. On the shore of the river Nambu Bambu unexpectedly came across his big father, bending over another raft. The man heard them coming, and turned swiftly. He opened his mouth wide, and his eyes rolled weirdly. "Nambu Bambu!" he gasped hoarsely, dancing about, "Ow!" But Nambu Bambu could

only show his little teeth in a smile, for he was hanging on tightly as the raft slid, slowly and quietly, into the great, sliding river, And looking back, he could sec his father still dancing about, waving his arms, but never attempting to join him, and the grey rain hissing in the water, and the shore going further and further away. It was a lovely motion in the water, sliding along, with tiic river gurgling and lapping at the sides, and once the front of the raft lifted up, and Nambu Bambu caught sight of rows of little white necklace charms, like those his father wore in strings round his neck. Then the drowsy motion and the damp heat overcame little Nambu Bambu, and he fell asleep on his living raft's back, while his father jigged in agonies of-help-lessness on the shore, and the rain came drizzling down. For an hour the little negro cruised on his raft's back, and so still ho kept, that, the strange raft, began to be afraid of little Nambu Bambu himself, and scrambled up the riverside, lumbered through the jungle again, and shook oft his drowsy burden into the mud at the waterhole before it made its way to the river again. When little Nambu Bambu awakened, it was sunset, the rain : had stopped, and the forest was throwing its longest shadows across him. He heard cries at the hut, so he stumbled sleepily up there. Now that was funny. His mammy was swaying backwards and forwards, making awful wailing noises . . . and his daddy . . . "Ow! Nambu Bambu!" shrieked his father, catching sight of him, his mouth gaping and his eyes rolling. Nambu's mammy caught sight of him, and she clutched his arm. "Yiss! it's Nambu Bambu!" she cried hoarsely, but his daddy was dancing another jig. "I saw . . . the crocodile . . ." he whispered. "But feel the chile,"' said his mammy excitedly, then she said sternly, "Nambu Bambu, has you bin riding on de crocodile, an has he eatin' you?"

"Nup!" said Nambu Bambu, meaning "no!"

"When; yuuse cimn; from'.'" demanded his father. "Dc waterhnle," said his son. truthfully, liis eyes nearly popping out of his head in his surprise, so his mammy picked him up and civt him a {jood spanking, while she said to her husband in between smacks, "It were somebody else's baby, and you should hab looked in de mud hole all de time, like' 1 tell you." And the big negro went off to beat the drum to scare away the crocodiles and evil spirits. When Nambu Bambu's mammy had finished smacking him, she found the little boy was fast asleep, so she said she s'poscd the smacking had been a waste of breath, like the weeping and wailing had been . . . but she forbade little Nambu Bambu to ro back to the water hole, and he had to find another damp, hot place to bask in.

NURSRRY ,RHYMK

Blow, wind, blow! And no mill «o! That the miller may grind his corn That the baker may take it. And into rolls make it, And send us some hot in the morn. Answers to Jumbled Flowers. Pansy, Daffodil, Rose, Violet, Wall Flower. Answer to Riddle A yard.