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'I'll just draw a straight line for my spear.' and he drew this.
(11.)

'Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed.'

'Please don't, Daddy. It makes me uncomfy. Do some more noises.
We're getting on beautifully.'

'Er-hm!' said Tegumai, looking up. 'We'll say shu. That means
sky.'

Taffy drew the snake and the drying-pole. Then she stopped. 'We
must make a new picture for that end sound, mustn't we?'

'Shu-shu-u-u-u!' said her Daddy. 'Why, it's just like the
round-egg-sound made thin.'

'Then s'pose we draw a thin round egg, and pretend it's a frog
that hasn't eaten anything for years.'

'N-no,' said her Daddy. 'If we drew that in a hurry we might
mistake it for the round egg itself. Shu-shu-shu! 'I tell you
what we'll do. We'll open a little hole at the end of the round
egg to show how the O-noise runs out all thin, ooo-oo-oo. Like
this.' And he drew this. (12.)

'Oh, that's lovely! Much better than a thin frog. Go on,' said
Taffy, using her shark's tooth. Her Daddy went on drawing, and
his hand shook with incitement. He went on till 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.

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