LION THAT LOST ITS TAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 2, 3 January 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

LION THAT LOST ITS TAIL.

A BEDTIME STORY. One very warm day in very warm y&ica Sambo came out of hi 3 little mud fcttage to go for a walk. And when Sambo went for a walk Anything might happen. For the place where Sambo lived is a place of adventures —and not always very nice ones. Creepy, crawly adventures, for instance, like snakes; or growly, enarly ones, like lions. To-day Sammy boy was feeling quite happy, and thought he would just pick some of the waxy flowers that grew in a spot he knew. So he strolled along— till he heard a strange noise. He -wasn't eure at first what the noise was. It might have been thunder or loud tomtoms. ' He put one hand behind his ear and listened. There it was again! And then Sambo law it —a great big yellow lion. Mr. Lion was staring hard at Sambo, and he seemed to have taken a fancy to him. Sambo remembered being told that a lion's favourite dish was a little black boy and when Sambo saw this lion »it down in the middle of the flowers he had meant to pick and laugh Sambo guessed he was thinking about that dinner he was going to have presently. But suddenly an idea had come to Sambo. He would hide behind a prickly thorn tree the tree whose leaves are like little knives. What a good protection that would be if Mr. Lion should jtharge. So down he crouched and peeped at ILm through the branches. But that didn't worry Mr. Lion. " Ha, ha! " he said to .himself. " I have only got to take a flying leap over the thorn, hush and where mil little nigger boy be then?" And a flying leap he did take; but JBambo gave another and wag off in the Opposite direction. "Help! Help!" cried Sambo, running for his life. • He thought he could hear the footsteps of Mr. Lion coming after him, and he ran and ran till he was so exhausted ;fchat he sank down on the ground behind another bush and peered out. There he saw an extraordinary sight. Not very far away Mr. Lion was sitting, making" the most extraordinary noise. It was rather like rain pattering down on palm leaves. Sambo peered a little jeloser. Why, Ire was eying! Big tears ;rere pouring down his furry face and making a little pool by his side. No'.v Sambo had a kind heart beating JnsMe hia little shining black body, and yhen he saw poor old Mr. Lioii in floods fcf tears he crept slowly out of his hiding J?lace. At once he saw what had happened. In jumping over the thorn bu3h Mr. lion's tail had been chopped off by the little knife-like leaves. "800-lioo !" sobbed Mr. Lion. "Its ■the only tail Pve ever Lad, and I'll never another. It has been a good tail to aie." At that Sambo's sympathy began to lubble over. He quite forgot to be afraid, and only remembered that this ;was a poor creature in trouble. "Never mind," he said, coming boldly forward. "I will see what I can do for you, poor thing. Where is the tail, do you think?" "800-hoo!" said the lion, quite forgetting that Sambo wa3 a tender supper dish, and only remembering he was a friend in need. "I think it must still be hanging on the tree." So off went Sambo; and, sure enough, there was the tail hanging on a thorn.

inmiiiiiniiuiiiiiiniiiiciiiiiiiiiiiinimimtiiiciiiiiitiiuiiaiiiiiiiiuiicini Very carefully Sambo climbcd among the prickly "branches and took it down. "I know where there's a tree from, which the gum oozes," said Sambo, running off. "You wait here." And in a few minutes back he came with some gum in one hand and the tail in the other. And then at once he set to work. And "when that old tail was fixed on once more Mr. Lion's joy and thankfulness knew no bounds. "I'll nerer have nigger boy for supper again as long as I live," he declared in,his deep voice; and. putting his paw through Sambo's arm, they went dancing off together, as merry as sand-boys.