Page:The pink fairy book (IA pinkfairybooklan00lang).pdf/345

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THE LITTLE HARE
329

to the lion.' So they all entered into the Animal Kingdom. Last of all came the monkey with her baby on her back. She approached the ditch, and took a blade of grass and tickled Big Lion's nose, and his nostrils moved in spite of his efforts to keep them still. Then the monkey cried, 'Come, my baby, climb on my back and let us go. What sort of a dead body is it that can still feel when it is tickled?' And she and her baby went away in a fright. Then the little hare said to the other

black and white illustration of a lion lying on its side in a ditch while a monkey with a baby monkey clinging to it's back tickles the lions nose with a long blade of grass. In the background a hare stands on its hind limbs and blows a long trumpet in the middle of the gateway of a gated wall with the large sturdy wooden gate visible open behind it. There is a shovel stuck in a pile of dirt as though the ditch was recently dug and a few animals milling around (a spotted cat, possibility a leopard and some kind of deer or antelope)

beasts, 'Now, shut the gate of the Animal Kingdom.' And it was shut, and great stones were rolled against it. When everything was tight closed the little hare turned to Big Lion and said 'Now!' and Big Lion bounded out of the ditch and tore the other animals in pieces.

But Big Lion kept all the choice bits for himself, and only gave away the little scraps that he did not care about eating; and the little hare grew very angry, and determined to have his revenge. He had long ago found out