“Yes, do, do!” screamed the duck, the goose and the hen.
“I have never heard anything like this in my life,” said the lion, looking round in surprise at the crowd. “It’s just the most peaceable and timid animals in the forest that want to take the strangers’ lives. What have they done to you? What are you afraid of?”
“I can’t tell you any more than the ox can,” said the horse. “But I feel that they are dangerous. I have such pains in my loins and legs.”
“When I think of those two, I feel as if I were being skinned,” said the ox. “I feel teeth biting into my flesh.”
“There’s a tugging at my udders,” said the cow.
“I’m shivering all over, as though all my wool had been shorn off,” said the sheep.
“I have a feeling as if I were being roasted before the fire and eaten,” said the goose.
“So have I! So have I!” screamed the duck and the hen.
“This is most remarkable,” said the lion. “I have never heard anything like it and I can’t understand your fears. What can those strangers do to you? They go about naked among us, eat an apple or an orange and don’t do the least harm. They go on two poor legs, whereas you have four, so that you can run away from them anyhow. You have horns and claws and teeth: what are you afraid of?”