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[Pg 55] <h2>THE LION'S STORY OF HIS MOST NARROW ESCAPE</h2> "Well," said the lion, "you know I used to live in Africa, and used to eat deer and other animals. You remember I showed you this morning how I would catch deer? "Well, one night it was very dark, and I climbed up on a bank, and there I waited. I could not hear a sound. Everything was just as still as could be. Suddenly, a long way off, I heard a sound as if an animal was moving. Below the bank there was a path that the animals took when they went to get water, and it seemed to me that this animal was coming along the path, and would soon be right under the place where I was waiting. I watched and watched, and the animal came nearer and nearer and nearer; but it was very dark, and I couldn't see a thing, and I was very sure, any way, that it was a deer, and that I could have him for my supper. The animal came nearer and nearer, and, finally, I gave a great leap; and what do you suppose I landed upon? The back of a rhinoceros. "You know a rhinoceros has a skin almost as hard as iron, and right on the end of his nose two horns, very sharp. If I had landed on those horns,[Pg 56] it surely would have killed me. The rhinoceros was terribly frightened, and so was I. He snorted and roared almost like a locomotive. I tried to dig my claws into his back, but I couldn't get through his tough hide at all. It was just like trying to scratch a locomotive. He jumped and rolled over and hurt my foot, and I found I couldn't move, because he had one of his great feet on my claws." Then the lion pointed to his claw and showed how it was all bent and twisted and scarred, and said, "That is where the rhinoceros stepped on my foot. "Finally the rhinoceros grew so angry that he put his tongue out. I reached up and bit a hole clear through his tongue, and then he ran away as fast as he could, and I ran away as fast as I could, but I had to run on three feet. And that is the end of my story." The little Cub Bear looked at the lion, then he looked at the lion's lame foot, and then he scratched his head and said, "I think it is a good plan to 'look before you leap.'" And the lion said, "I wish somebody had told me that a long time ago." After the lion had finished his story, and the animals had eaten their dinner, they commenced to work again, and worked all afternoon. Late that night the Papa Bear came home with a lot of[Pg 57] strawberries that he had found, and all of the bears had a fine supper. The elephant ate hay and grass and the other animals found something they liked to eat. After the lion had finished the story, the little Cub Bear commenced to tease his papa for a story about the "Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but the Papa Bear said that he was tired of telling stories about the "Little-bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but would tell a story about a club-foot grizzly bear, if the little Cub Bear wanted to hear it. The little Cub Bear said that he did, and snuggled up as close as he could to his papa, for grizzly bears are as large as four or five grown-up brown bears all put together, and they have great teeth and claws. They like to eat little pigs, and little calves, and such things instead of berries and honey. When the little Cub Bear had snuggled up as close to his papa as he could the Papa Bear commenced. <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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