The Lion nodded again and smiled. Then he lifted up his head and opened his mouth and roared and _roared_ and ROARED. They were not the least bit frightened. They just shrieked and laughed and jumped up and down and made him do it over and over again.
Now I will tell you what had happened in the village.
At first when the children ran away the mothers and fathers were all at their work and did not miss them for several hours. It was at lunch time that the grown-ups began to find out the little folks were gone and then one mother ran out into the village street, and then another and then another, until all the mothers were there, and all of them were talking at once and wringing their hands and crying. They went and looked under beds, and tables and in cupboards, and in back gardens and in front gardens, and they rushed to the village pond to see if there were any little hats or bonnets floating on the top of the water. But all was quiet and serene and nothing was floating anywhere--and there was not one sign of the children.
When the fathers came the mothers all flew at them. You see it isn"t any joke to lose fifty children all at once.
The fathers thought of the Lion the first thing, but the mothers had tried not to think of him because they couldn"t bear it.
But at last the fathers got all the guns and all the pistols and all the iron spikes and clubs and scythes and carving knives and old swords, and they armed themselves with them and began to march all together toward the Huge Green Hill. The mothers _would_ go too and _they_ took scissors and big needles and long hat pins and one took a big pepper-pot, full of red pepper, to throw into the Lion"s eyes.
They had so much to do before they were ready that when they reached the Huge Green Hill the sun was going down and what do you think they heard?
They heard this----
"Ro-o-a-a-arh! Ro-o-a-a-rh! Ro-o-a-a-arrh!" almost as loud as thunder. And at the same time they heard the shouts and shrieks of the entire picnic.
But _they_ did not know that the picnic was shouting and screaming for joy.
So they ran and ran and ran--and stumbled and scrambled and hurried and scurried and flurried faster and faster till they had scrambled up the Huge Green Hill to where the Lion"s Cave was and then they gathered behind a big clump of bushes and the fathers began to c.o.c.k their guns and the mothers to sharpen their scissors and hat pins.
But the mother with the pepper-pot had nothing to sharpen, so she peeped from behind the bushes, and suddenly she cried out, "Oh! Oh!
Oh! Oh! Look! Look! And don"t fire a single gun, on any account."
And they all struggled to the front to peep. And _this_--thanks to Me--_was what they saw_!
On the green places before the Lion"s Cave on several soft heaps of gra.s.s, the tiniest children were sitting chuckling or sucking their thumbs. On the gra.s.s around them a lot of others were sitting or standing or rolling about with laughter and kicking up their heels-- and right in front of the Cave there stood the Lion looking absolutely angelic. His tail had a beautiful blue sash on it tied just below the tuft in a lovely bow, he had a sash round his waist, and four children on his back. The Little Little Girl was sitting on his mane which was stuck full of flowers, and she was trying to put a wreath on the top of his head and couldn"t get it straight, which made him look rather rakish. On one side of him stood the little boy in the sailor suit, and on the other stood a little girl, and each one held him by the end of a rope of pink and white wild roses which they were going to lead him with.
The mother of the Little Little Girl could not wait one minute longer. She ran out towards her, calling out:----
"Oh! Betsy-petsy! Oh! Betsy-petsy! Mammy"s Lammy-girl!"
And then the other mothers threw away their scissors and hat pins and ran after her in a crowd.
What that clever Lion did was to carefully lie down without upsetting anybody and stretch out his head on his paws as if he was a pet poodle, and purr and purr like a velvet cat.
The picnic simply shouted with glee. It was the kind of picnic which is always shouting with glee.
"Oh! Mother! Mother! Father! Father!" it called out. "Look at our Lion! Look at our Lion! We found him ourselves! He"s ours."
And the sailor boy shouted,
"He"ll roar for me, Mother!"
And the rest cried out one after another,
"He"ll sit up and beg for me!"
"He"ll carry me by my trousers!"
"He can play tag!"
"He"ll show you his claws go in and out!"
"Mother, ask him to take you on his back to get a drink."
"May he go home and sleep with me, Mother?"
It was like a bedlam of skylarks let loose this time, and the Lion had to do so many tricks that only determination to show how Cozy he was kept up his strength. He was determined to prove to the Fathers and Mothers that he _was_ Cozy.
And he did it.
From that time he was the Lion of the Village. He was invited everywhere. There never was a party without him. Birthday parties, garden parties, tea parties, wedding parties--he went to them all.
His life was one round of gaiety.
He became _most_ accomplished. He could do all the things Lions do in Hippodromes--and a great many more. The Little Little Girl gave him a flute for a present and he learned to play on it beautifully.
When he had an evening at home he used to sit at his Cave door and play and sing. First he played and then he sang this----
My Goodness Gracious Me!
This _is_ Socier-tee!
My Goodness Gracious Mercy Me!
This _is_ Socier-ier-tee!
It _is_ Socier-tee!
He had composed it himself.
The next story I shall tell you is about my Spring Cleaning. That will show you how I have to work when the winter is over and how, if it were not for Me, things would never be swept up and made tidy for the summer. The primroses and violets would NEVER be wakened, or the Dormice called up, or anything. It IS a busy time, I can tell you.