The Zoological Gardens. 49

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animals. He was pacing restlessly up and
down.

“He wants to get out,” said Tom to the
lion’s man-servant. “It is such a little place
to walk in. Can’t you open his door ?”

“T daresay he does, sir,” said the man. “I
daresay they all do. But what would become
of us if the wild beasts were allowed to run
about free ?”

“Oh!” said Tom, “if you are afraid,
couldn’t you open his door quickly, and then
run away? It’s a shame that a king in his
own country should be kept a prisoner here!
How sorry he must be that he ever visited
England, and how he must wish to go back !”

The man told him that the lion liked beef
and mutton for his dinner, just as he did, only |
he preferred eating it raw, and not cooked in
kitchens.

Tom wondered at his taste. In the next
den there was another lion lying fast asleep.
Tom was glad to think he could sleep, and
was not too unhappy in such a miserable little
home. Close beside him lived the tigers and