fight, I guess, if he didn't," said Norton; "and
that other creature would stand a chance to get whipped; and her coat
would be scratched; that's all the man cares for."

"And is that the reason the tigress keeps out of the tiger's way so?"

"Of course. Some people would say, I suppose, that she was _amiable_."

"I never should, to look in her face," said Matilda laughing. "Tigers
certainly are wicked. But, they do not know any better. How can it be
wickedness?"

"Now come, Pink," said Norton; "we have got to be home by one, you
know, and there's a fellow you haven't seen yet; the hippopotamus. We
must go into another place to see him."

He was by himself, in a separate room, as Norton had said, where a
large tank was prepared and filled with water for his accommodation.
Matilda looked at him a long time in silence and with great attention.

"Do you know, Norton," she said, "this is the _behemoth_ the Bible
speaks about?"

"I don't know at all," said Norton. "How do you know?"

"Mr. Richmond says so; he says people have found out that it is so. But
he don't seem to me very big, Norton, for that."

The keeper explained, that the animal was a young one and but half
grown.

"How tremendously ugly he is!" said Norton.

"And what a wonderful number of different animals there are in the
world," said Matilda. "This is unlike anything I ever saw. I wonder why
there are such a number?"

"And so many of them not good for anything," said Norton.

"Oh Norton, you can't say that, you know."

"Why not? This fellow, for instance; what is he good for?"

"I don't know; and you don't know. But that's just it, Norton. You
_don't_ know."

"Well, what are lions and tigers good for?" said Norton. "I suppose we
know about them. What are they good for?"

"Why Norton, I can't tell," said Matilda. "I would very much like to
know. But they must be good for something."

"To eat up people, and make the places where they live a terror," said
Norton.

"I don't know," said Matilda, with a very puzzled look on her little
face. "It seems so strange, when you think of it. And those great
serpents, Norton, that live where the lions and tigers live; they are
worse yet."

"Little and big," said Norton. "I do despise a snake!"

"And crocodiles," said Matilda. "And wolves, and bears. I wonder if the
Bible tells anything about it."

"The Bible don't tell everything, Pink," said Norton laughing.

"No, but I remember now what it doe