help the other animals now, the lions may find themselves left all
alone when THEY are in trouble. That often happens to proud people."

"The lions are never IN trouble--they only MAKE trouble," said the
Leader, turning up his nose. And he stalked away into the jungle,
feeling he had been rather smart and clever.

Then the leopards got proud too and said they wouldn't help. And then
of course the antelopes--although they were too shy and timid to be
rude to the Doctor like the lion--THEY pawed the ground, and smiled
foolishly, and said they had never been nurses before.

And now the poor Doctor was worried frantic, wondering where he could
get help enough to take care of all these thousands of monkeys in bed.

But the Leader of the Lions, when he got back to his den, saw his wife,
the Queen Lioness, come running out to meet him with her hair untidy.

"One of the cubs won't eat," she said. "I don't know WHAT to do with
him. He hasn't taken a thing since last night."

And she began to cry and shake with nervousness--for she was a good
mother, even though she was a lioness.

So the Leader went into his den and looked at his children--two very
cunning little cubs, lying on the floor. And one of them seemed quite
poorly.

Then the lion told his wife, quite proudly, just what he had said to
the Doctor. And she got so angry she nearly drove him out of the den.
"You never DID have a grain of sense!" she screamed. "All the animals
from here to the Indian Ocean are talking about this wonderful man, and
how he can cure any kind of sickness, and how kind he is--the only man
in the whole world who can talk the language of the animals! And now,
NOW--when we have a sick baby on our hands, you must go and offend him!
You great booby! Nobody but a fool is ever rude to a GOOD doctor.
You--," and she started pulling her husband's hair.

"Go back to that white man at once," she yelled, "and tell him you're
sorry. And take all the other empty-headed lions with you--and those
stupid leopards and antelopes. Then do everything the Doctor tells
you. Work hard! And perhaps he will be kind enough to come and see
the cub later. Now be off!-- HURRY, I tell you! You're not fit to be
a father!"

And she went into the den next door, where another mother-lion lived,
and told her all about it.

So the Leader of the Lions went back to the Doctor and said, "I
happened to be passing this way and thought I'd look in. Got any hel