othbrush?"

"Too busy!" said the rhinoceros, and he went on brushing as hard as he
could.

The boar sniffed angrily and trotted down the trail toward the dragon,
muttering to himself, "Very suspicious--tigers too busy chewing gum,
Rhinoceros too busy brushing his tusk--must get hold of that
invasion. Don't like it one bit, not one bit! It's upsetting everybody
terribly--wonder what it's doing here, anyway."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

_Chapter Seven_

MY FATHER MEETS A LION

My father waved goodbye to the rhinoceros, who was much too busy to
notice, got a drink farther down the brook, and waded back to the
trail. He hadn't gone very far when he heard an angry animal roaring,
"Ding blast it! I told you not to go blackberrying yesterday. Won't
you ever learn? What will your mother say!"

My father crept along and peered into a small clearing just ahead. A
lion was prancing about clawing at his mane, which was all snarled and
full of blackberry twigs. The more he clawed the worse it became and
the madder he grew and the more he yelled at himself, because it was
himself he was yelling at all the time.

My father could see that the trail went through the clearing, so he
decided to crawl around the edge in the underbrush and not disturb the
lion.

He crawled and crawled, and the yelling grew louder and louder. Just
as he was about to reach the trail on the other side the yelling
suddenly stopped. My father looked around and saw the lion glaring at
him. The lion charged and skidded to a stop a few inches away.

[Illustration]

"Who are you?" the lion yelled at my father.

"My name is Elmer Elevator."

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going home," said my father.

"That's what you think!" said the lion. "Ordinarily I'd save you for
afternoon tea, but I happen to be upset enough and hungry enough to
eat you right now." And he picked up my father in his front paws to
feel how fat he was.

My father said, "Oh, please, Lion, before you eat me, tell me why you
are so particularly upset today."

"It's my mane," said the lion, as he was figuring how many bites a
little boy would make. "You see what a dreadful mess it is, and I
don't seem to be able to do anything about it. My mother is coming
over on the dragon this afternoon, and if she sees me this way I'm
afraid she'll stop my allowance. She can't stand messy manes! But I'm
going to eat you now, so it won't make any difference to you."