Baby Jane's Mission

In Short

This whimsical Edwardian fantasy follows a young girl named Baby Jane who decides to spend her holidays in the African desert. Her mission is to reform the wild inhabitants—lions, bears, and rabbits—by teaching them etiquette, organized games, and the value of "niceness." The book functions as an extended, surreal nursery parable, blending the language of Victorian schooling with the absurdity of a bestiary. It has endured as a curious relic of children’s literature, highlighting a specific era’s imaginative play and its earnest, often colonially tinged, approach to civilizing the "wild."

The Story

The narrative begins with Baby Jane waking in the desert, surrounded by a menagerie of beasts she has already begun to reform. She quickly establishes a routine, lecturing her pupils on the virtues of washing their faces and playing organized games like "Cat and Mouse" rather than fighting. Among her companions are a Bear, a Lion, a Rabbit, and a "Light-Horse" (later named Mary Carmichael), who all struggle to adapt to her strict social curriculum.

The story moves through a series of episodic adventures, including a theatrical production of Hamlet—which the animals perform with surprising earnestness—and a chaotic, destructive football match. As Baby Jane’s fame grows, she encounters Sammy, a small costermonger who has arrived in Africa to mine gold, and his donkey, Edouardo. Sammy joins the group, bringing along a barrow that allows the animals to travel and play more efficiently. However, trouble brews in the Black Mountains, where a band of "worst characters" led by a Black Leopard waits.

The tension escalates when the animals are captured by the Leopard’s forces, leading to a dramatic rescue. Baby Jane, disguised in a bearskin, narrowly avoids being eaten after the Rabbit accidentally betrays them, but a climactic battle ensues where the Lion and the Bear fight off the enemy, aided by little Patsey, a brown ape who pelts the aggressors with cocoa-nuts. Victory is secured, and Baby Jane formalizes her rule by organizing an "army" of beasts to ensure peace. The animals celebrate with a spirited Irish jig, reflecting their total assimilation into Jane’s Victorian-influenced culture.

The conclusion arrives when a butler, Mr. Markham, appears in the desert to retrieve Baby Jane, noting that her holidays have ended and lessons must resume. Though the animals are heartbroken, they reconcile themselves to her departure, with Sammy, Mary, and Edouardo securing positions in Jane’s domestic household. Jane leaves the desert, promising to return, while the beasts stand watch as silent statues against the horizon, cementing the transition of the "wild" into a domesticated extension of her life.

How It Unfolds

The call to order Baby Jane awakens in the desert and immediately gathers her pupils, including a Bear and a Lion, to teach them how to wash and behave properly. She views the wild animals as pupils in need of a schoolroom, setting the stage for a series of lessons in etiquette and play.

The theatrical reform The group stages elaborate plays like Hamlet to distract themselves from their predatory instincts and prove their intellectual growth. These performances serve as a central metaphor for Jane’s belief that refined behavior can supersede natural animal aggression.

The arrival of commerce Sammy the costermonger arrives with his donkey and a barrow, introducing the concepts of trade and labor into the desert. This addition allows the band to travel and organize themselves into an army, signaling a shift from games to structured hierarchy.

The looming threat The group faces the Black Mountain Band, a rival faction of wild beasts that threatens to dismantle Jane’s peaceful order. The ensuing conflict forces the protagonists to rely on both physical strength and Jane's strategic leadership to survive.

The final summons The arrival of a family servant marks the end of Jane’s independence, forcing her to abandon her desert kingdom for a conventional life at home. The animals accept their new roles as future domestic helpers, completing the journey from wild, howling creatures to subjects of a Victorian girl.

The People

Baby Jane is the undisputed architect of the desert’s social order. She is driven by a sincere, if naive, belief that all beings—no matter how ferocious—are essentially "nice" if only they are taught properly. She acts as a surrogate teacher and mother figure, wielding authority through guilt and moral instruction.

The Lion serves as her primary lieutenant. Despite his predatory nature, he is deeply invested in Jane’s approval and frequently experiences the physical exhaustion of trying to live up to her standards. He is a tragicomic figure who often finds himself battered by the very games Jane insists he play.

The Bear acts as the pragmatic enforcer. He is more worldly and cynical than the other animals, often providing the "costumes" or "props" for their games through dubious means. He remains fiercely loyal to Jane, functioning as a bridge between her civilized goals and the harsh realities of the desert.

Mary Carmichael, the former Light-Horse, represents the melancholic aspect of the party. She is often seen weeping or fanning herself, struggling with a "dreary expression" that contrasts with the high-energy demands of Jane’s games. She eventually finds purpose as a beast of burden, accepting her role in the domestic future Jane envisions.

In Its Own Voice

"I've come out to the African Desert to teach the poor dear creatures nice things to do, instead of fighting and howling and killing one another."

Baby Jane explains her fundamental, and highly improbable, pedagogical mission to her companions.

"If you did happen to want to let me go this once, I wouldn't be saucy any more."

A frightened Rabbit pleads with a Bear who has pinned him to the sand, highlighting the precarious nature of life in Jane’s desert.

"Of course, it's much best to make things so good for the good ones that everybody wants to become good; but if that won't do, then you have to make things so bad for the bad ones that nobody wants to stay bad."

Baby Jane articulates her political philosophy to the assembled animals before forming her army.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book is a playful yet striking manifestation of the imperial-era obsession with "civilizing" the world through education. It argues that the "savage" (represented by the wild animals) is merely a blank slate waiting for the right instruction. By projecting the structures of British schooling, theatre, and class hierarchy onto the African desert, the book examines the tension between natural instinct and enforced social performance. The underlying question is whether kindness and games are enough to curb inherent volatility, or whether a "regiment" is ultimately required to maintain order.

Why Read It Today

This book is a fascinating artifact of its time, capturing a period when the exotic and the domestic were regularly mashed together in children's literature. Readers who enjoy the surreal, dry wit found in early 20th-century fantasy will find much to admire here. The experience of reading it feels like stepping into an elaborate, improvised game played by a child who has been given total control over a vast, imaginary landscape.

However, modern readers should be prepared for the period attitudes embedded in the narrative. The representation of Africa as a playground for a British child, and the casual use of tropes regarding "piccaninnies" and "cannibal light-horsemen," are jarring reminders of the colonial framework that informed the author’s world. The humor—such as the Bear's casual remarks about eating rabbits—is darkly eccentric, which some may find amusingly macabre and others find off-putting. If you are interested in how children’s literature historically used fantasy to explore themes of governance and social conditioning, this book offers a unique, if problematic, lens. It remains a strange, evocative, and conceptually singular work that stands apart from more standard, sentimental animal tales of the era.