"By my claws and teeth, all the earth is white!" exclaimed the largest of the cubs, as he looked through his barred window.
"The world must be coming to an end," said a shivering puma, curling up in the farthest corner of his cage.
"Ho, there, Sultan!" cried out one of the young tigers; "you are old and full of wisdom, tell us why all the land is white, and why our teeth chatter so."
Old Sultan rose thereupon, and having walked majestically to the front of his dwelling, lifted up his voice and said:
"It is well that you children should know that we are no longer in the Jungle of our fathers. For some reason, I know not what, we have been brought captive into the far North, where, ever and anon, the earth is white, and our hair stands out stiff and harsh. However, I would counsel you to be patient and calm. The food is wholesome and plenty, and is laid each day conveniently at our very feet."
"That is indeed so," assented the mother lioness. "It is a great burden off my mind to know that though my claws grow dull with age, and my limbs too stiff to leap, you children are still unpursued by the phantom of hunger unappeased. Therefore, let us be thankful." And she stretched herself out on the floor of her house, and was soon snoring comfortably.
The wise counsel of the older lions calmed the cubs somewhat, but filled them with so much curiosity about the jungle home of their people that throughout the day they kept those who had been born in freedom busy answering their questions. Thus it happened that neither Pwit-Pwit, the sparrow, nor the little Limping Boy—who no longer limped—could get the attention of Mahmoud or Duchess, mate of the aged elephant, till toward evening.
In the deepest snow of his yard stood Wapiti, the red deer, with his head aloft, his great branching antlers thrown back and his nostrils quivering. Pwit-Pwit flew up and alighted on one of the prongs and chirped merrily into the deer's ear: