A LITTLE BOY LOST

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UNUSUAL BOOKS _FOR BOYS AND GIRLS_

THREE AND THE MOON BY JACQUES DOREY _DECORATED BY BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF_

THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY BIBLE STORIES _SELECTED AND DECORATED BY JAMES DAUGHERTY_

THE RUNAWAY SARDINE _TOLD AND ILLUSTRATED BY EMMA L. BROCK_

THE THREE MULLA-MULGARS BY WALTER DE LA MARE _ILLUSTRATED BY DOROTHY LATHROP_

COME HITHER BY WALTER DE LA MARE _DECORATED BY ALEC BUCKELS_

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[Illustration: HE IN TURN, LEANING OVER THE ROCK STARED BACK INTO MARTIN'S FACE WITH HIS IMMENSE FISHY EYES.]

A LITTLE BOY LOST

by

W . H . HUDSON

Author of "Green Mansions," Etc.

Illustrated by Dorothy . P . Lathrop

[Illustration]

New York Alfred . A . Knopf MCMXXXVI

Copyright 1920 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce not more than three illustrations in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper.

Published September 18, 1920

Manufactured in the United States of America

_Contents_

I THE HOME ON THE GREAT PLAIN, 13

II THE SPOONBILL AND THE CLOUD, 20

III CHASING A FLYING FIGURE, 29

IV MARTIN IS FOUND BY A DEAF OLD MAN, 33

V THE PEOPLE OF THE MIRAGE, 44

VI MARTIN MEETS WITH SAVAGES, 60

VII ALONE IN THE GREAT FOREST, 68

VIII THE FLOWER AND THE SERPENT, 76

IX THE BLACK PEOPLE OF THE SKY, 86

X A TROOP OF WILD HORSES, 95

XI THE LADY OF THE HILLS, 109

XII THE LITTLE PEOPLE UNDERGROUND, 117

XIII THE GREAT BLUE WATER, 129

XIV THE WONDERS OF THE HILLS, 135

XV MARTIN'S EYES ARE OPENED, 144

XVI THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST, 153

XVII THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA, 163

XVIII MARTIN PLAYS WITH THE WAVES, 173

NOTE, 184

_Illustrations_

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: A Little Boy Lost by W. H. Hudson
• 2: I mean Martin's father Martin
• 3: Still tightly holding the ends of his pinafore
• 4: Flaunting their yellow blossoms high above the meadow grass
• 5: Frightening a number of ibises
• 6: All this was of no benefit to Martin
• 7: And a shadow flew far and vast before it
• 8: Crept a tiny dusty black beetle and began drinking the drop
• 9: It astonished and almost frightened Martin to hear it
• 10: Continued old Jacob aloud to himself
• 11: And poured it over the sleeper
• 12: Thinking the naughty little boy was there
• 13: Growing louder and louder every minute
• 14: Strum strumming on a little silver stringed banjo
• 15: Stand on your head to the Queen
• 16: And Martin when he remembered old Jacob
• 17: Or the people of the Mirage he had seen
• 18: He also found quantities of cam berries
• 19: Melu melumia quiltahou papa shani cha silmata
• 20: And they came and overthrew Martin
• 21: Very quietly and cautiously he crept away from among them
• 22: Was the big black weasel once more
• 23: On account of the rough thorny undergrowth
• 24: Those brilliant glinting eyes were still on his face
• 25: For he could not be afraid of an owl
• 26: The owl kept staring at Martin for some time
• 27: Exclaimed the man with the knife
• 28: Let us keep in mind the boldness
• 29: Prickly bushes like butcher's broom
• 30: Clinging with his hands to the mane
• 31: Pressed the teat into his mouth
• 32: His fingers tightly holding on to the great shaggy beard
• 33: There were vast reed beds standing on low land
• 34: In a grassy part of the valley
• 35: There was a thick bed of tall green and yellow ferns
• 36: She smiled again and fondled him
• 37: Have you by chance ever seen a buzzard
• 38: Crowds of people were gathered around the smithies
• 39: Martin himself Martin with nothing on
• 40: Never shall Martin wear such poor clothes
• 41: And picking up a stick would turn on his playmate
• 42: Martin shivered and nestled closer to her
• 43: He was vexed with himself for feeling drowsy
• 44: And of a very bright reddish fawn colour
• 45: They were big hawks almost as big as eagles
• 46: And then he saw fewer and fewer
• 47: What were they talking about so excitedly
• 48: Blue sky the grey mist changed to silvery white
• 49: As the grass grew in tussocks or bunches
• 50: No little Martin resting on her bosom
• 51: And at last drew off from the precipice
• 52: And now formed islands of black jagged rock
• 53: Becoz now I couldn't go no further
• 54: With nothing good except perhaps the baccy
• 55: Drawing the round pebbles with it
• 56: He was lying on an old raft of black
• 57: Rotten wood and brown seaweed he gazed over the ocean
• 58: Of a little naked white boy lying on the old black raft
• 59: Still if a foreword you must have