Page:Shantiniketan; the Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore.djvu/92

72 the forest, sparkling chatim trees looked up to the sky, holding their leaves aloft like beautiful fingers. Great creepers joined tree to tree like bridges, and in some places seemed to have prepared swings for the spirits of the wood to play in. Utonka saw wild boars, some of them digging up the earth, and some lying in holes. Now and then he saw two huge curved horns appear behind the screen of distant trees, and once or twice a forest deer started suddenly from right before him. Once he saw on the branch of a tree a big honeycomb with black bees buzzing round it.

After some time Utonka entered a large open plain. In the distance the scorching sunlight was flickering like tongues of fire. The sky was deep blue.

Before going out into the heat of the sun Utonka sat down to rest in the shade at the edge of the forest. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a huge black cow appeared in the middle of the plain. How wonderful! Whence could it have come? Utonka had no idea that there was such a large cow anywhere in the world, and he rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not dreaming. When he had stopped rubbing his eyes he was still more astonished; for on the back of the cow