Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/254

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232
LONELY O'MALLEY

out about as I had figgered. All that pepper 'd made the lion as blind as a bat! And when he turned round and jumped for me again, I was twenty feet off to one side, watchin* him sneeze as he come down! and there he was, jumpin' and jumpin', not knowin' where I was!"

"Could n't he smell you?" demanded Lulu Bird.

"Smell nothin',—with a pound o' black pepper up his nose? He just kept roarin' and howlin' round there and jumpin' for the spot where he 'd seen me last. So when I seen I 'd fixed him all right, I sent word up to the circus folks to come and get their animal. And when they come hustlin' up with the cage, I showed 'em just where he was goin' to make his next jump. So they slipped the cage up where I showed 'em. Next jump he landed clean inside; and there he was, shut in neat as a whistle."

"But I got a great old lickin' when I got home," added the impartial and impersonal historian, "for lettin' the chili sauce get spoiled, for want of them spices!"

"Tell us another story!" reiterated the over-ingenuous Lulu Bird.