f blue
ribbon fastened to the long hair between his ears, and the Tiger wore a
bow of red ribbon on his tail, just in front of the bushy end.

In an instant Dorothy was hugging the huge Lion joyfully.

"I'm _so_ glad to see you again!" she cried.

"I am also glad to see you, Dorothy," said the Lion. "We've had some
fine adventures together, haven't we?"

"Yes, indeed," she replied. "How are you?"

"As cowardly as ever," the beast answered in a meek voice. "Every little
thing scares me and makes my heart beat fast. But let me introduce to
you a new friend of mine, the Hungry Tiger."

[Illustration]

"Oh! Are you hungry?" she asked, turning to the other beast, who was
just then yawning so widely that he displayed two rows of terrible teeth
and a mouth big enough to startle anyone.

"Dreadfully hungry," answered the Tiger, snapping his jaws together with
a fierce click.

"Then why don't you eat something?" she asked.

"It's no use," said the Tiger sadly. "I've tried that, but I always get
hungry again."

"Why, it is the same with me," said Dorothy. "Yet I keep on eating."

"But you eat harmless things, so it doesn't matter," replied the Tiger.
"For my part, I'm a savage beast, and have an appetite for all sorts of
poor little living creatures, from a chipmonk to fat babies.

"How dreadful!" said Dorothy.

"Isn't it, though?" returned the Hungry Tiger, licking his lips with his
long red tongue. "Fat babies! Don't they sound delicious? But I've never
eaten any, because my conscience tells me it is wrong. If I had no
conscience I would probably eat the babies and then get hungry again,
which would mean that I had sacrificed the poor babies for nothing. No;
hungry I was born, and hungry I shall die. But I'll not have any cruel
deeds on my conscience to be sorry for."

"I think you are a very good tiger," said Dorothy, patting the huge head
of the beast.

"In that you are mistaken," was the reply. "I am a good beast, perhaps,
but a disgracefully bad tiger. For it is the nature of tigers to be
cruel and ferocious, and in refusing to eat harmless living creatures I
am acting as no good tiger has ever before acted. That is why I left
the forest and joined my friend the Cowardly Lion."

[Illustration: THE HUNGRY TIGER]

"But the Lion is not really cowardly," said Dorothy. "I have seen him
act as bravely as can be."

"All a mistake, my dear," protested the Lion gravely. "To others I may
have seemed brave, at