lls. Don't you go near a Man, if you love your life; why, bless me,
they will make mincemeat of you! Hooroo!" The Elephant swished his trunk
all round him in his excitement.

Our Lion had now seen three astonishing creatures, and they all said
that a Man was stronger than they were. What could this terrible
creature be like? He must be a mountain indeed, if he was to master such
a beast as the black Elephant. Yet the black creature said that Men got
on his back, a dozen of them at a time. The Lion could not understand it
at all. He shook his head, and stalked away thoughtful.

As the Lion was going along, he saw a puny and weak-looking thing,
walking upright on two legs. He seemed to be a kind of monkey, thought
the Lion. It never entered his head that this little thing could be a
Man, but he trotted up to him gaily, and said--

"Good morning, my friend. Can you tell me where I can find a Man? I
have been hunting for one all the morning."

"I am a Man," said the other.

At this the Lion laughed in his face. "You a Man!" said he. "Come, come;
I may be young, but I am no fool, my good fellow. Why, you are not so
big as one leg of that mountain over there, who was tied to a stake, as
he said, by a Man."

"All the same," the Man said, "I am one of them."

"But look here," the Lion went on, "my father and mother both say that
Man is a terrible and cruel creature, and the only creature a Lion need
fear. Now, either you are no Man, or else my father and mother are quite
wrong."

"Well," said the Man, "I am not nearly so strong as you are, or the
Elephant and Camel, or even the Ox. As you say, I am not much to look
at, but I have one power which you all lack."

[Illustration]

"Indeed," said the Lion, "and what may that be?"

The Man answered, "Reason."

"I never heard of reason," said the Lion. "Please explain it to me, will
you?"

"It is not easy to explain what reason is," replied the Man; "but if you
like, I will show you how it works."

The Lion was pleased. "Oh please do," he said.

I must tell you that this Man was a woodcutter, and he had an axe upon
his shoulder. He now lifted this axe and drove a blow into a stout
sapling which grew hard by. When he had split the sapling, he took a
wedge of wood, and hammered it in with the back of his axe, until there
was a large cleft in the trunk of the sapling. "Now then," said the Man,
"just put your paw in that hole."

The Lion obediently put his paw into th