` 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 do n't ask me what it is now , or else I 'll have to tell . ' So her Mummy most carefully did n'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 -LRB- water is ending or running out -RRB- chalked on the side of the big stone water-tank , outside the Cave . ` Um , ' said Taffy . ` These picture-sounds are rather a bother ! Daddy 's just as good as come here himself and told me to get more water for Mummy to cook with . ' She went to the spring at the back of the house and filled the tank from a bark bucket , and then she ran down to the river and pulled her Daddy 's left ear -- the one that belonged to her to pull when she was good . ` Now come along and we 'll draw all the left-over sound-pictures , ' said her Daddy , and they had a most inciting day of it , and a beautiful lunch in the middle , and two games of romps . When they came to T , Taffy said that as her name , and her Daddy 's , and her Mummy 's all began with that sound , they should draw a sort of family group of themselves holding hands . That was all very well to draw once or twice ; but when it came to drawing it six or seven times , Taffy and Tegumai drew it scratchier and scratchier , till at last the T-sound was only a thin long Tegumai with his arms out to hold Taffy and Teshumai . You can see from these three pictures partly how it happened . -LRB- 20 , 21 , 22 . -RRB- Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with , especially before lunch , but as they were drawn over and over again on birch-bark , they became plainer and easier , till at last even Tegumai said he could find no fault with them . They turned the hissy-snake the other way round for the Z-sound , to show it was hissing backwards in a soft and gentle way -LRB- 23 -RRB- ; and they just made a twiddle for E , because it came into the pictures so often -LRB- 24 -RRB- ; and they drew pictures of the sacred Beaver of the Tegumais for the B-sound -LRB- 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 -RRB- ; and because it was a nasty , nosy noise , they just drew noses for the N-sound , till they were tired -LRB- 29 -RRB- ; and they drew a picture of the big lake-pike 's mouth for the greedy Ga-sound -LRB- 30 -RRB- ; and they drew the pike 's mouth again with a spear behind it for the scratchy , hurty Ka-sound -LRB- 31 -RRB- ; and they drew pictures of a little bit of the winding Wagai river for the nice windy-windy Wa-sound -LRB- 32 , 33 -RRB- ; and so on and so forth and so following till they had done and drawn all the sound-pictures that they wanted , and there was the Alphabet , all complete . And after thousands and thousands and thousands of years , and after Hieroglyphics and Demotics , and Nilotics , and Cryptics , and Cufics , and Runics , and Dorics , and Ionics , and all sorts of other ricks and tricks -LRB- because the Woons , and the Neguses , and the Akhoonds , and the Repositories of Tradition would never leave a good thing alone when they saw it -RRB- , the fine old easy , understandable Alphabet -- A , B , C , D , E , and the rest of 'em -- got back into its proper shape again for all Best Beloveds to learn when they are old enough . But I remember Tegumai Bopsulai , and Taffimai Metallumai and Teshumai Tewindrow , her dear Mummy , and all the days gone by . And it was so -- just so -- a little time ago -- on the banks of the big Wagai ! OF all the Tribe of Tegumai Who cut that figure , none remain , -- On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry The silence and the sun remain . But as the faithful years return And hearts unwounded sing again , Comes Taffy dancing through the fern To lead the Surrey spring again . Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds , And golden elf-locks fly above ; Her eyes are bright as diamonds And bluer than the skies above . In mocassins and deer-skin cloak , Unfearing , free and fair she flits , And lights her little damp-wood smoke To show her Daddy where she flits .
For far -- oh , very far behind , So far she can not call to him , Comes XXXXX alone to find The daughter that was all to him .
Akhoonds Ionics N-sound Tegumai Tegumais Teshumai Tradition hissy-snake lake-pike scratchier