ry has a special meaning for us. We are told
that if we cast our bread upon the waters, it shall be returned to us.
That means that if we do an act of kindness, we shall have our reward.
Androcles did an act of kindness to the lion in the jungle. In return
Androcles was given back his life in the arena.

_The Lady and the Lioness_

I shall close this chapter by telling you another true story. It
happened quite recently, in America. In a zoo there was a lioness. She
had two little cubs. She was very fond of them, and she used to lick
them with her tongue many times every day to keep them clean. They used
to trot around her and scramble over her, then lie down beside her, one
on each side, to have another cleaning with her tongue.

One day the lioness and her two cubs were lying like that quite close to
the bars of the cage. One of the visitors there happened to be a man who
had an umbrella. Very foolishly he poked one of the cubs with the
umbrella. He did not mean to hurt the cub; I suppose he only wanted to
_feel_ it. But still it was very foolish to poke the cub with the
umbrella.

In an instant the lioness jumped up with an angry roar, and thrust out
her paw between the bars. Luckily for the man, she could not quite reach
his arm; otherwise she would have dragged him to the bars of the cage
and killed him instantly. Instead, she could only reach the umbrella. So
she seized the umbrella, and wreaked her vengeance on it. She smashed it
to a thousand bits. The man, of course, ran away.

Then gradually the lioness quieted down. She lay down as before in front
of the bars, with the cubs beside her, one on each side. Now and again
she gave them an affectionate lick with her tongue, first one, then the
other. That helped to sooth her feelings somewhat. Still, as you may
well understand, she was bitter at heart at the foolishness of some
people.

Now it so happened that a lady had observed the whole incident. She had
been standing all the time in front of the cage, a few yards away. And
this lady had two little girls with her, one four years old, and the
other six years old.

You may be sure that the lioness saw the lady and the two little
children. After a time the lady came a little nearer to the cage, the
two little girls standing beside her, one on each side. The lady tried
to catch the lioness's eye. Presently their eyes met. While the lioness
was still looking at her, the lady patted her two little girls on th