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advise  on  the terrain and  the direction  the beaters should
            What y
            What you Think?ou Think?         take once a tiger had been spotted.


              Why  did Grandfather           The camp itself was  sumptuous – seven large tents (one
              accompany the party?           for each shikari), a dining-tent, and a number of servants’
                                             tents.  The dinner was very good, as Grandfather admitted
                                             afterwards; it was not often that  one saw hot-water plates,
                                             finger-glasses,  and  seven  or  eight  courses,  in  a  tent  in  the
            jungle!  But  that  was  how  things  were  done  in  the  days  of  the  Viceroys.  There  were
            also some fifteen elephants, four of them with howdahs for the shikaris, and the others

            especially trained for taking part in the beat.
            The sportsmen never saw a tiger, nor did they shoot anything  else, though they saw

            a  number  of  deer,  peacock,  and  wild  boar.  They  were  giving  up  all  hope  of  finding  a
            tiger, and were beginning to shoot at jackals, when Grandfather, strolling down the forest
            path at some distance from the rest of the party, discovered a little tiger about eighteen
            inches long, hiding among the intricate roots of a Banyan tree. Grandfather picked him

            up, and brought him home after the camp had broken up. He had the distinction of
            being the only member of the party to have bagged any game, dead or alive.

            At first the tiger-cub, who was named Timothy by
            Grandmother, was brought up entirely on milk given to
                                                                                   What you Think?ou Think?
            him in a feeding bottle by our cook, Mahmud. But the milk              What y
            proved too rich for him, and he was put on a diet of raw                      Where did the

            mutton and cod liver oil, to be followed later by  a more                 Grandfather find the
            tempting diet of pigeons and rabbits.                                              tiger?

            Timothy was provided with two companions – Toto, the
            monkey, who was bold enough to pull the young tiger by the tail, and then climb up
            the curtains if Timothy lost his temper; and a small mongrel puppy, found on the road
            by Grandfather.

            At first, Timothy appeared to be quite afraid of the puppy,
            make absurd dashes at it with his large forepaws, and then  What you Think?ou Think?
                                                                                   What y
            and darted back with a spring if it came too near. He would

            retreat  to a ridiculously safe distance. Finally, he allowed             Explain-absurd  dashes.
            the puppy to crawl on his back and rest there.

            One of Timothy’s favourite amusements was to stalk anyone
            who would play with him, and so, when I came to live with Grandfather, I became one
            of the tiger’s favourites. With a crafty look in his glittering eyes, and his body crouching,
            he  would  creep  closer  and  closer  to  me,  suddenly  making a  dash  for  my  feet, rolling






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            The English Carnival-6
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