Page:Babyhood of Wild Beasts.djvu/197

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BABY LLAMAS
159

another effort. "Beauty" grew with amazing rapidity. It wasn't many months before she was the plumpest and daintiest creature it has been my pleasure to meet. And with her physical growth developed some of the most remarkable mental traits I have ever witnessed in the animal world.

"Beauty" was a born coquette. If she couldn't flirt with any one else, she would "make eyes" at Toby the zebra, and toss her pretty head and strut and prance and give herself the airs of a fine young lady.

She was just as gracious to Mike, the elephant, and Caliph, the fat old hippo, as she was to Toby; so you can see that the zebra wasn't especially favoured. "Beauty" was particularly vain about her tail. It was a wonderful tail. But what puzzled me about the whole matter was how "Beauty" found it out. She had never glimpsed her reflection in the water, nor to my knowledge had any one told her of that fluffy bit of beauty she possessed. But she was conscious of it every minute of the day. She would walk back and forth, using her legs rather gingerly (young