Part 1 (1/2)

The Adventures of Akbar

by Flora Annie Steel

A DEDICATION

Oft when the house lay silent in the heat My thoughts would be so full of you,half--I see at the door, The pitter patter of your childish feet In joyous rhyth floor

Then small, soft hands would nestle into mine, And warm soft arms around my neck would twine, As soft and war so close in clear young voice would tease And tease and tease inwhine For ”Just one little story if you please”

So half in jest and half in earnest, too, Mostly I think to drea tales of lands afar And days gone by that yet reain the verdict ”Tell souiled Into my life the spirit of a child

Thus one by one the weary hours flew And page by page a little volurew, So--that , it rit for you

_April, 1875_

Long years have sped since that poor book was penned

None read the pages Therefore at the end Of this world's life I dedicate to two S eyes of blue Tell me that dreams of childhood never end _This_ book So take it boys--'trit for you

_1911_

PREFACE

This book is written for all little lads and lasses, but especially for the former, since it is the true--_quite_ true--story of a little lad who lived to be, perhaps, the greatest king this world has ever seen

It is a strange, wild tale this of the adventures of Prince Akbar ah the names may be a bit of a puzzle at first, as they will have to be learned by and bye in geography and history lessons, it et fah, indeed, as everybody in it except Roy the Rajput, Meroo the cook boy; Tu; and Down, the cat (and these four _h they have not been rehtn't to be considered real history, and therefore

A LESSON BOOK

Anyhow, I hope you won't find it dull

CHAPTER I

FAREWELL

_Bis, queer-sounding words, which in Arabic mean ”thanks be to God,” were shrilled out at the very top of Head-nurse's voice Had she been in a room they would have filled it and echoed back fro, deep-chested woman But she was only in a tent; a small tent, which had been pitched in a hurry in an out-of-the-way valley a the low hills that lead frohanistan For Head-nurse'sHumayon and Queen Humeeda, with their thirteenfor their lives before their enemies And these enemies were led by Humayon's own brothers, Prince ku story, and a sad story, too, how Humayon, so brave, so clever, so courteous, fell into misfortune by his own fault, and had to fly from his beautiful palaces at Delhi and wander for years, pursued like a hare, amid the sandy deserts and pathless plains of Western India And now, as a last resource, his followers dwindled to aa desperate effort to escape over the Persian border and clai

So the poor tent was ragged and out at elbows, for all that it was made of costly Kashilt