was a bit too
slow.

"We'll fix that," said the keeper, kindly, "you just watch."

He tossed a great big fish close to the crowd of waiting seals, then,
quick as a flash and before they had had time to get that one, he tossed
another, straight at the little seal who was on the edge of the crowd.

"He got it! He got it!" cried Mary Jane happily, "he got it before they
had a chance!"

"And he's going to get another," said the keeper as he threw another and
still another, straight at the hungry little seal. "There!" he added as he
looked at the now empty basket, "that ought to do him till to-morrow."
Mary Jane thought he looked so comfortable now that surely he had had as
much as he needed for the day.

"Better hurry if we're to see the lions eat," said Mr. Holden, who during
the seals' dining hour had come up behind his little party.

"Lions!" exclaimed Mary Jane.

"Yes, hurry up!" called Betty and she and her brother who were quite
familiar with the park because of many previous visits, ran on toward a
big brick house near by.

Mary Jane wasn't afraid, but all the same she thought it would be more fun
to hold her father's hand and even though they were a bit behind, they got
into the lions' house in time.

Here the dinner was of meat, great big chunks of raw, red meat that the
keepers tossed into the cages. And it was so funny to watch! Just before
the keeper appeared, the lions and tigers and jackals and leopards were
pacing up and down their cages with such weird roars and grunts and growls
that Mary Jane held tightly to her father's hand and didn't go very close
to the iron bars. But when the keepers appeared with the meat there was a
wild scramble, and then silence except for the crunching and smacking of
eating. It certainly was different, oh, very, very different from anything
Mary Jane had ever seen before!

"Let's not wait here any more," suggested Alice, "let's show Dadah the
monkeys."

"Yes, and the foxes--the white ones," said Mary Jane, "they're my
favorites of all."

But before they had had time to show Mr. Merrill every single creature
they had seen, the Holden boys announced that they were hungry and that it
was long past dinner time. And sure enough! Even though it wasn't really
long _past_ dinner time, it _was_ half past five--the time they had agreed
upon for dinner. So a very jolly party seated themselves at a big round
table on a second story porch of the Park restaurant. That was the