And they all struggled to the front to peep. And this—thanks to Me—was what they saw!
On the green places before the Lion's Cave on several soft heaps of grass, the tiniest children were sitting chuckling or sucking their thumbs. On the grass around them a lot of others were sitting or standing or rolling about with laughter and kicking up their heels— and right in front of the Cave there stood the Lion looking absolutely angelic. His tail had a beautiful blue sash on it tied just below the tuft in a lovely bow, he had a sash round his waist, and four children on his back. The Little Little Girl was sitting on his mane which was stuck full of flowers, and she was trying to put a wreath on the top of his head and couldn't get it straight, which made him look rather rakish. On one side of him stood the little boy in the sailor suit, and on the other stood a little girl, and each one held him by the end of a rope of pink and white wild roses which they were going to lead him with.
The mother of the Little Little Girl could not wait one minute longer. She ran out towards her, calling out:——
"Oh! Betsy–petsy! Oh! Betsy–petsy! Mammy's Lammy–girl!"
And then the other mothers threw away their scissors and hat pins and ran after her in a crowd.
What that clever Lion did was to carefully lie down without upsetting anybody and stretch out his head on his paws as if he was a pet poodle, and purr and purr like a velvet cat.
The picnic simply shouted with glee. It was the kind of picnic which is always shouting with glee.
"Oh! Mother! Mother! Father! Father!" it called out. "Look at our Lion! Look at our Lion! We found him ourselves! He's ours."
And the sailor boy shouted,