"

"Oh, Mr. Jollyface, are you sure?"

"Yes," replied Mr. Jollyface gravely, "I can really be quite certain
upon that point."

"If you had seen a great lion, Mr. Jollyface, what would you have done?"

"I think," debated Mr. Jollyface, as he prepared to disencumber himself
of his great-coat, "I think I should have wished him good-evening and
passed politely, like the--ahem--Levite, on the opposite side of the
way."

"Oh, Mr. Jollyface," sighed Ridgwell, "if you only knew we have waited
all day long for a lion."

"Now, that's very funny," whispered Mr. Jollyface, "for I have actually
brought one for you in my pocket, I have really. Here it is,"
announced the imperturbable Mr. Jollyface, as he produced a parcel from
his pocket and thrust it into Ridgwell's hand.

"No, no, not that sort of lion," remonstrated Ridgwell.

"Well, perhaps this one would do," suggested Mr. Jollyface. "It's the
best sort of lion, you know, really, and made of the very finest
chocolate, too."

Here a well-known voice was heard to remark: "If I have to speak to you
children once more about going to bed there will be trouble."

"Scamper off," exclaimed the good-natured Mr. Jollyface; then he added,
"you know you can eat chocolate in bed quite as well as you can
anywhere else. I used to enjoy it as a boy more than I should have
done upon a plate in the dining-room. Off you go; good-night, kids."

Thereupon Father claimed Mr. Jollyface, and as the children slowly
mounted the stairs they could hear him saying: "So it was you the
children were waiting for, and the animal friend they expected was a
chocolate lion, eh?"

"Very likely," agreed Mr. Jollyface. "Ha! ha! ha! so they have been
puzzling you, my old friend, eh?"

"Well, children's riddles are very difficult to guess," said Father,
"and yet they are always so simple."

"Chris," observed Ridgwell dejectedly, as they reached their room and
turned the handle of the door, "they none of them understand; isn't it
dreadful? and they are grown up, too, and really ought to know."

"We've waited and waited, Ridgie, and there's nothing else to be done;
Lal won't come now, and he's never broken his word before, has he?"

"He might come, Chris; let's roll up the blind."

"No, the garden looks the same as it always does; there isn't a thing
in sight. Suppose we don't go to sleep just yet and keep awake a bit;
Lal might come and throw a stone at the window."

"Let's eat the chocolate