My father was reading all these signs when he heard pawsteps and
ducked behind the signpost. A beautiful lioness paraded past and
turned down toward the clearings. Although she could have seen my
father if she had bothered to glance at the post, she was much too
occupied looking dignified to see anything but the tip of her own
nose. It was the lion's mother, of course, and that, thought my
father, must mean that the dragon was on this side of the river. He
hurried on but it was farther away than he had judged. He finally came
to the river bank in the late afternoon and looked all around, but
there was no dragon anywhere in sight. He must have gone back to the
other side.

My father sat down under a palm tree and was trying to have a good
idea when something big and black and hairy jumped out of the tree and
landed with a loud crash at his feet.

"Well?" said a huge voice.

"Well what?" said my father, for which he was very sorry when he
looked up and discovered he was talking to an enormous and very fierce
gorilla.

"Well, explain yourself," said the gorilla. "I'll give you till ten to
tell me your name, business, your age and what's in that pack," and
he began counting to ten as fast as he could.

[Illustration]

My father didn't even have time to say "Elmer Elevator, explorer"
before the gorilla interrupted, "Too slow! I'll twist your arms the
way I twist that dragon's wings, and then we'll see if you can't hurry
up a bit." He grabbed my father's arms, one in each fist, and was just
about to twist them when he suddenly let go and began scratching his
chest with both hands.

"Blast those fleas!" he raged. "They won't give you a moment's peace,
and the worst of it is that you can't even get a good look at them.
Rosie! Rhoda! Rachel! Ruthie! Ruby! Roberta! Come here and get rid of
this flea on my chest. It's driving me crazy!"

Six little monkeys tumbled out of the palm tree, dashed to the
gorilla, and began combing the hair on his chest.

"Well," said the gorilla, "it's still there!"

"We're looking, we're looking," said the six little monkeys, "but
they're awfully hard to see, you know."

[Illustration]

"I know," said the gorilla, "but hurry. I've got work to do," and he
winked at my father.

"Oh, Gorilla," said my father, "in my knapsack I have six magnifying
glasses. They'd be just the thing for hunting fleas." My father
unpacked them and gave one to Rosie, one to Rhoda, one to Rachel, one
to Ru