A VOYAGE TO INDIA
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Raining, still raining! Oh dear, oh dear! But what, you say to yourself, is a little rain? Jane Ann must be patient. She must stay at home and play with her delightful toys this afternoon, and then perhaps to-morrow morning the sun will come out, and she will be able to run about in the fields again. After all, it isn't every little girl who has a rabbit, and a horse and cart, and an india-rubber ball to play with. Come, come, Jane Ann!
How little you understand!
To-day was the day. To-morrow will be too late. Perhaps even now if it cleared up —but each time that she has said this, down has come another cloud. She tried shutting her eyes; she did try that. She tried shutting her eyes and saying, "One, two, three, four—I'll count twenty and then I'll open them, and please, will you let the rain stop by then, please, because it's too terribly important, you know why." Yes, she counted twenty; quickly up to twelve, and then more slowly to fifteen, and then sixteen . . . seventeen . . . eighteen . . . nine . . . teen . . . and then, so slowly that it wasn't really fair, but she wanted to make it easier for God, twe . . . twe . . . twe . . . TWENTY! But it went on raining. She tried holding her breath; she said that if she held her breath a very long time, longer than anyone in the whole world had ever held it before, then when she stopped holding it, it would stop raining. Wouldn't it? But it didn't. So she stood at the window and watched the raindrops sliding down the pane; and she said—and she knew this would do it—that if this raindrop got to the bottom of the pane before the other, then it would stop raining, but that if the other one did, then it wouldn't stop . . . and when they were half-way down, she said, No, it was the other way about, and if this one got there last, then . . . But still it went on raining.
You see, it was the day she was going to India. Her Father and Mother lived in India, and she remembered them quite well. At first she remembered they were black, because all Indians were black, and then when Aunt Mary told her they were white, she remembered how white they were. She was to live with Aunt Mary until they came home, which was next year, and sometimes she got tired of waiting.
"Couldn't they come to-morrow?" she asked.
"Not to-morrow," said Aunt Mary, "because they are very busy, but it won't be long now."
Then Jane Ann had her lovely idea. If they were too busy to come to her, she would go to them.
She counted up all her money, and thought it would be just enough, if she walked all the way. And every day that week, when she went out with her Nurse, she bought something nourishing, like buns or chocolates, and put them in her special box. And every evening she looked inside the box, and then shut her eyes and thought very hard of her Father and Mother, and didn't eat any of it. And when the box was full, it was Friday night, and to-morrow was the day.
She said good-bye to Rabbit that night. They all wanted to come, but Rabbit most. Rabbit had a special pink ribbon round his neck to come by, and he had never been to India before, so he was terribly excited. But Jane Ann said, No, he couldn't, because India was full of fierce tigers, and tigers ate rabbits. Rabbit saw that it wouldn't do to be eaten by a tiger, but he thought he could dodge them. He was very disappointed when Jane Ann told him that even dodgy rabbits got eaten by tigers in India. "Even very dodgy rabbits?" he asked wistfully. "Yes," said Jane Ann, "even very dodgy rabbits." But she felt so sorry for him when she said this that she took off his pink ribbon and hid it away in a drawer, in case she felt she couldn't leave him behind in the morning.
They were all to see her off. She arranged them in the window—Horse and Cart, Horse, Ball and Rabbit—so that she would be able to wave to them for quite a long way. Of course, after you had gone a long way you had to turn to the right, and then you wouldn't see them any more. That was when she would first open her box, because she would be feeling so lonely. It was wonderful how unlonely chocolate made you.
Looking out of the window next morning, Rabbit saw that it was raining.
"Perhaps she won't go now," he said, and he was very excited.
After breakfast Jane Ann looked out of the window, too.
"It will stop soon," she said cheerfully.
And she stood there waiting for it to stop . . .