e
cheek.

Then the lady came a step nearer the cage. As the lioness licked her
cubs, the lady patted her own little children; and she smoothed their
cheeks and hair.

_The lioness saw that._

The lady was just waiting for that. She came still nearer to the cage.
Each time the lioness licked her cubs, the lady stroked the cheeks of
her own children affectionately.

Then the lady began to speak. She spoke in a very soft voice, very
gently and very slowly. She spoke softly as if she meant only the
lioness to hear her. This is what she said:

"I at least understand you. I too am a mother, like you. See, these are
_my_ two children! I love them as you love yours."

Then the lady took up the children, one on each arm. She kissed the
children, first one, and then the other--and the kiss seemed almost
like the act of the lioness in licking the faces of her own cubs. By
that the lady meant the lioness to understand that the children were
just the same to her as the cubs were to the lioness.

Then the lady spoke again, as softly and tenderly as before:

"My children also love your children. Wouldn't it be nice if they could
play together!"

Then the lady held the smaller girl in front of her. Very timidly the
little girl held out her hand--while her mother looked into the
lioness's eyes.

Well, my dear children, I cannot tell how it happened. Perhaps some
message of love and sympathy and understanding passed between the two
mothers--the mother of the two little girls, and the mother of the two
little cubs. At any rate, this is what actually happened:

Very timidly and very slowly the lady stepped to the cage. The little
girl put her hand between the bars, and petted the cub nearest to her.
The lady moved a little, and the girl petted the other cub. The lioness
looked on all the time.

Then something still more wonderful happened. As the little girl was
petting the cub, the lioness also began to lick the cub; then the
lioness's tongue passed over the cub's body and came to the child's
hand--and _the lioness began to lick the child's hand as if the child
were her own_.

Remember that this was a wild lioness, and untamed. Nobody had ever
dared before even to come within her reach.

Then the lady turned a little, and brought the other girl to the bars of
the cage--and she too petted the cubs. Lastly, the lady put the girls
down, and passed her own hand through the bars. She too petted the cubs,
then finally she st