"What funny things you have in America!" she exclaimed. "Just see how these things walk and the queer men on their backs."
"The animals are called camels," I said; "and their drivers are supposed to be Arabs from the desert."
"Oh, I have studied about the camels and the deserts!" Winifred said, and she looked at them with new interest.
Her astonishment reached its climax when she saw the elephants.
"What are they at all?" she cried, gazing at their enormous bulk with startled eyes, as they slowly plodded on. Her glance wandered from their trunks to their great legs and huge sides. I told her what they were, and I think her studies had supplied her with some information about them and the ivory which is obtained from their tusks.
She was charmed with the monkeys.
"I'm sure they're little old men," she said—"just like those Niall used to tell about, who were shut up in the hills."
She was never tired of watching their antics, and only regretted when they were out of sight. Two or three of them were mounted on tiny ponies; and, to Winifred's great glee, one tumbled ignominiously off and had to be picked up out of the mud by an attendant.
"What's coming now?" she cried, as one of the vans containing a lion hove into sight. The great beast lay tranquil and unmoved, gazing at the passers-by with that air of nobility which always belongs to his species. His appearance seemed to fascinate my companion and she gazed at him very earnestly.