[Allan and the Holy Flower by H. Rider Haggard]@TWC D-Link book
Allan and the Holy Flower

CHAPTER IX
22/27

Now as he had divined on Friday, according to our almanac, this meant that we might hope to see him--hope exactly described my state of mind on the matter--on the Monday evening in time for supper.
"All right," I said briefly.

"Please do not talk to me any more about this impious rubbish, for I want to go to sleep." Next morning early we unpacked our boxes and made a handsome selection of gifts for the king, Bausi, hoping thus to soften his royal heart.
It included a bale of calico, several knives, a musical box, a cheap American revolver, and a bundle of tooth-picks; also several pounds of the best and most fashionable beads for his wives.

This truly noble present we sent to the king by our two Mazitu servants, Tom and Jerry, who were marched off in the charge of several sentries, for I hoped that these men would talk to their compatriots and tell them what good fellows we were.

Indeed I instructed them to do so.
Imagine our horror, therefore, when about an hour later, just as we were tidying ourselves up after breakfast, there appeared through the gate, not Tom and Jerry, for they had vanished, but a long line of Mazitu soldiers each of whom carried one of the articles that we had sent.
Indeed the last of them held the bundle of toothpicks on his fuzzy head as though it were a huge faggot of wood.

One by one they set them down upon the lime flooring of the verandah of the largest hut.


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