"Well," said the lion, "you know I used to live in Africa, and used to
eat deer and other animals. You remember I showed you this morning how
I would catch deer?
"Well, one night it was very dark, and I climbed up on a bank, and
there I waited. I could not hear a sound. Everything was just as still
as could be. Suddenly, a long way off, I heard a sound as if an animal
was moving. Below the bank there was a path that the animals took when
they went to get water, and it seemed to me that this animal was coming
along the path, and would soon be right under the place where I was
waiting. I watched and watched, and the animal came nearer and nearer
and nearer; but it was very dark, and I couldn't see a thing, and I
was very sure, any way, that it was a deer, and that I could have him
for my supper. The animal came nearer and nearer, and, finally, I gave
a great leap; and what do you suppose I landed upon? The back of a
rhinoceros.
"You know a rhinoceros has a skin almost as hard as iron, and right
on the end of his nose two horns, very sharp. If I had landed on
those horns, it surely would have killed me. The rhinoceros was
terribly frightened, and so was I. He snorted and roared almost like a
locomotive. I tried to dig my claws into his back, but I couldn't get
through his tough hide at all. It was just like trying to scratch a
locomotive. He jumped and rolled over and hurt my foot, and I found I
couldn't move, because he had one of his great feet on my claws."
Then the lion pointed to his claw and showed how it was all bent and
twisted and scarred, and said, "That is where the rhinoceros stepped on
my foot.
"Finally the rhinoceros grew so angry that he put his tongue out. I
reached up and bit a hole clear through his tongue, and then he ran
away as fast as he could, and I ran away as fast as I could, but I had
to run on three feet. And that is the end of my story."
The little Cub Bear looked at the lion, then he looked at the lion's
lame foot, and then he scratched his head and said, "I think it is a
good plan to 'look before you leap.'"