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The Lions found themselves in a country ruled by a
very bad man who believed he was King of Everything, including the
Beasts. That angered The Lion, the true King of Beasts, who would have
eaten him on the spot if he'd been given the chance. But The Lions
were carefully guarded, and escape seemed impossible. Even so, the Man
Who Called Himself King had many enemies. No one seemed to have a good
thing to say about him, including Ali, the boy who had the job of
feeding The Lions. Ali always muttered to himself when he brought them
meat and water each day, complaining that the zoo animals ate better
than he and his family did.
The Lion, who had stale beef to eat now instead of
fresh zebra, didn't feel sorry for him. He hated the zoo and what he
could see of the shabby, dusty city beyond it. The Lion spent much of
his time in the concrete den at the back of the lion cage, lying with
his head between his paws and trying to imagine he was back home on
the veldt beneath the snows of Kilimanjaro. The Lioness did what she
could to make their house a home, placing the gnawed beef bones in a
neat pile at front of the cage for Ali to collect each morning, and
sweeping the cement floor clean with her tail. But The Lion would not
be comforted.
In the cage next door to The Lions lived a tiger
and a tigress from India. The Lion and the tiger argued constantly
about which of them was greater, the two pacing up and down on either
side of the bars and roaring at one other. The Lion called the tiger a
dope, and the tiger called The Lion a jerk. The Lion was so astonished
he stopped pacing and lashing his tail, and forgot even to roar.
"'Lion' and 'jerk,'" he explained in a dignified way to the tiger,
"are two words that should never be used in the same sentence."
The Lions had been captives in the Zoo for several
months when they became aware of strange happenings in the city
beyond. Trucks full of soldier men wearing turbans on their heads
rolled by in the streets. The spring sky was filled with airplanes and
smoke, and loud booming sounds shook the ground. As King of the
Beasts, The Lion paid no attention to any of these events until, one
afternoon, Ali failed to show up with his and The Lioness's supper. By
feeding time the next day, there were no people left in the Zoo, only
a lot of hungry and very thirsty animals. The Lion and The Lioness
cracked the dried beef bones with their teeth and sucked out the
marrow to eat, and they lapped up the rainwater that fell from passing
thunderstorms. Still, their ribs showed through their dull and patchy
coats and they were nearly dead from thirst when some soldier men
appeared. This time, they drove water trucks and delivery vans and had
on camoflage helmets instead of turbans. The word passed quickly among
the animals in the Zoo that these soldiers were from another country
far away, and that they brought fresh water and food with them. The
Lioness was so happy she cried. But The Lion remained suspicious right
up to the time when two of the soldier men, who called themselves
Colonel and Sergeant, marched up to the cage, inserted a key in the
lock, and swung the heavy door open. Colonel and Sergeant announced
respectfully that The Lions had been liberated in the name of the King
of the far-away country, and were free to come and go now as they
pleased. (The Lion couldn't help noticing that, although the soldiers
set the tigers next door free as well, they were not nearly so
respectful, which pleased him very much. He hoped it did not show.)
The Lion did a little jig outside the cage to celebrate his freedom,
and the brushy pompom at the end of his tail quivered with excitement
and delight. |
