Suttu's keen delight in open-air sights and sounds kept her watching the dainty little creature as it shifted the prize this way and that in its deft fingers so as to bring its teeth to bear on the hard shell. It worked as hard as Shâhbâsh, she thought, with another of her broad smiles, and deserved the sweet kernel. No, another squirrel had caught wind of the affair and came pirating along with tail full set. Lo, 'twas a play to watch! Up and down, round and round. The peach-stone dropped here, snatched up there, now in this one's possession, now in that, until finally the new-comer sat in the place of the old, gnawing at the hard shell, and twisting it about with deft fingers.
Suttu, with her chin on her hands, watched the second as she had the first.
And, after all, there was no kernel in the peach-stone, nothing but a shrivelled skin which had once----!
Suttu stood up, clapping her hands.
"Shâhbâsh! Shâhbâsh!" she cried.
The dwarf stuck his head out of the grave.
"Well, mai Suttu, what is it now?"
She turned with a flaunt of her petticoat, a flinging out of her round arms.
"'Twas the other 'Shâhbâsh' I meant, but 'tis all one. Leave digging, and go and call Hussan, the father-in-law. I have made up my mind."
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