Transcriber's Note: The following variant spellings used by the authorwere retained as printed: Babar/Baber, Sultanum/Sultanam, gray/grey, Allah/Alâh, meaowed/miaowed. Also,for this HTML version, illustrations have been moved to their relevant locationsin the text, though the original page references in the List of Illustrations have been preserved.)
THE ADVENTURES OF AKBAR
Uniform with this Volume
Price 6/-net each
THE SECRET GARDEN, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of "The Shuttle,"etc., illustrated by Charles Robinson.
THE FOUR GARDENS, by "Handasyde," illustrated by Charles Robinson.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, by Lewis Carroll, illustrated byArthur Rackham.
ÆSOP'S FABLES, translated by V. S. Vernon Jones, with an introduction byG. K. Chesterton, illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
21, BEDFORD STREET, W.C.
On a shelving bank of dry sand Baby Akbar sitting up andrubbing his eyes.
THE ADVENTURES OF AKBAR
by
FLORA ANNIE STEEL
ILLUSTRATED BY BYAM SHAW
LONDON · WILLIAM HEINEMANN · 1913
All rights reserved
A DEDICATION
My thoughts would be so full of you, my sweet,
That dreaming half—I seemed to hear once more
Your little fingers fluttering at the door,
The pitter patter of your childish feet
In joyous rhythm cross the echoing floor.
And warm soft arms around my neck would twine,
As soft and warm the dream child on my knees,
Cuddling so close in clear young voice would tease
And tease and tease in mimicked glad young whine
For "Just one little story if you please."
Mostly I think to dream my dreaming true,
I'd conjure up long tales of lands afar
And days gone by that yet remembered are;
Shaping my stories with this end in view
...