ng."

"Well," she answered, shaking with laughter, "you may sing a song--if
it be a merry one. But you do not seem in a merry mood."

"I feel merry--indeed, Your Majesty, I do!" protested Rinkitink,
anxious to escape the tickling. But even as he professed to "feel
merry" his round, red face wore an expression of horror and anxiety
that was realty comical.

"Sing, then!" commanded Queen Cor, who was greatly amused.

Rinkitink gave a sigh of relief and after clearing his throat and
trying to repress his sobs he began to sing this song-gently, at first,
but finally roaring it out at the top of his voice:

"Oh!
There was a Baby Tiger lived in a men-ag-er-ie--
Fizzy-fezzy-fuzzy--they wouldn't set him free;
And ev'rybody thought that he was gentle as could be--
Fizzy-fezzy-fuzzy--Ba-by Ti-ger!

"Oh!
They patted him upon his head and shook him by the paw--
Fizzy-fezzy-fuzzy--he had a bone to gnaw;
But soon he grew the biggest Tiger that you ever saw--
Fizzy-fezzy-fuzzy--what a Ti-ger!

"Oh!
One day they came to pet the brute and he began to fight--
Fizzy-fezzy-fuzzy-how he did scratch and bite!
He broke the cage and in a rage he darted out of sight--
Fizzy-fezzy-fuzzy was a Ti-ger!"

"And is there a moral to the song?" asked Queen Cor, when King
Rinkitink had finished his song with great spirit.

"If there is," replied Rinkitink, "it is a warning not to fool with
tigers."

The little Prince could not help smiling at this shrewd answer, but
Queen Cor frowned and gave the King a sharp look.

"Oh," said she; "I think I know the difference between a tiger and a
lapdog. But I'll bear the warning in mind, just the same."

For, after all her success in capturing them, she was a little afraid
of these people who had once displayed such extraordinary powers.

Chapter Eleven

Zella Goes to Coregos

The forest in which Nikobob lived with his wife and daughter stood
between the mountains and the City of Regos, and a well-beaten path
wound among the trees, leading from the city to the mines. This path
was used by the King's messengers, and captured prisoners were also
sent by this way from Regos to work in the underground caverns.

Nikobob had built his cabin more than a mile away from this path, that
he might not be molested by the wild and lawless soldiers of King Gos,
but the family of the charcoal-burner was surrounded by many creatures
scarcely less dangerous to encounte