rom the terrible beast Aunt Em and Uncle Henry both
were startled, and then Uncle Henry remembered that this must be the
Lion they had seen in Ozma's Throne Room.

"Hold on, Em!" he exclaimed. "Quit the eagle eye conquest an' take
courage. I guess this is the same Cowardly Lion Dorothy has told us
about."

"Oh, is it?" she cried, much relieved.

"When he spoke, I got the idea; and when he looked so 'shamed like, I
was sure of it," Uncle Henry continued.

Aunt Em regarded the animal with new interest.

"Are you the Cowardly Lion?" she inquired. "Are you Dorothy's friend?"

"Yes'm," answered the Lion, meekly. "Dorothy and I are old chums and
are very fond of each other. I'm the King of Beasts, you know, and the
Hungry Tiger and I serve Princess Ozma as her body guards."

"To be sure," said Aunt Em, nodding. "But the King of Beasts shouldn't
be cowardly."

"I've heard that said before," remarked the Lion, yawning till he
showed two great rows of sharp white teeth; "but that does not keep me
from being frightened whenever I go into battle."

"What do you do, run?" asked Uncle Henry.

"No; that would be foolish, for the enemy would run after me," declared
the Lion. "So I tremble with fear and pitch in as hard as I can; and
so far I have always won my fight."

"Ah, I begin to understand," said Uncle Henry.

"Were you scared when I looked at you just now?" inquired Aunt Em.

"Terribly scared, madam," answered the Lion, "for at first I thought
you were going to have a fit. Then I noticed you were trying to
overcome me by the power of your eye, and your glance was so fierce and
penetrating that I shook with fear."

This greatly pleased the lady, and she said quite cheerfully:

"Well, I won't hurt you, so don't be scared any more. I just wanted to
see what the human eye was good for."

"The human eye is a fearful weapon," remarked the Lion, scratching his
nose softly with his paw to hide a smile. "Had I not known you were
Dorothy's friends I might have torn you both into shreds in order to
escape your terrible gaze."

Aunt Em shuddered at hearing this, and Uncle Henry said hastily:

"I'm glad you knew us. Good morning, Mr. Lion; we'll hope to see you
again--by and by--some time in the future."

"Good morning," replied the Lion, squatting down upon the lawn again.
"You are likely to see a good deal of me, if you live in the Land of
Oz."

8. How the Grand Gallipoot Joined The Nomes

After