bs were large and strong enough to walk
abroad, then she took them out one day and never came back.

Some time after this Maldonata fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and
was brought back to Buenos Ayres on the charge of having left the city
contrary to orders. The governor, a man of cruelty, condemned the poor
woman to a death which none but the most-cruel tyrant could have thought
of. He ordered some soldiers to take her out into the country, and
leave her tied to a tree, either to die of hunger, or be torn to pieces
by the wild beasts. Two days later, he sent the same soldiers to see
what had happened to her. To their great surprise, they found her alive
and unhurt, though surrounded by lions and tigers, which a lioness at
her feet kept at some distance. As soon as the lioness saw the soldiers,
she fell back a little, so they were able to unbind Maldonata, who told
them the story of this lioness, whom she knew to be the same one she had
formerly helped in the cavern. When the soldiers were taking Maldonata
away, the lioness fawned upon her, as though unwilling to part from her.
The soldiers repeated the story to their commander, who could do no less
than pardon the woman who had been so wonderfully protected, or he would
have proven himself less humane than the lions themselves.

[Illustration]

V

A REMARKABLE NEWSMAN

One of the carriers of a large newspaper being ill, his son took his
place; but, not knowing the subscribers he was to supply, he took for
his guide a dog which had usually gone over the route with his father.
The animal trotted on ahead of the boy and stopped at every door where
the paper was to be left, without making a single mistake, or forgetting
anybody.

[Illustration]

VI

SHARP-WITTED BRUIN

The captain of a Greenland whaler being anxious to secure a bear,
without wounding the skin, made trial of the trick of laying a noose of
rope in the snow, and placing a piece of meat within it. A bear, roaming
over the ice nearby was soon attracted to the spot by the smell of the
dainty morsel. He saw the bait, crept up cautiously, and seized it in
his mouth; but his foot at the same time, by a jerk of the rope, became
entangled in the noose. He quietly pushed it off with his paw, and
walked slowly away. Having eaten the piece he had carried away with him,
he returned. The noose, with another piece of meat, having been
replaced, he pushed the rope aside, and again walked of