"Yes, everybody," said the Lion; "we don't want any more of it."
The Griffin looked sulky.
"As long as everybody knows what I did," said the Griffin. "Nobody else thought of doing it. Do you think it was better than my being the Sleeping Beauty?" inquired the Griffin eagerly.
"Yes," replied the Lion, "it was more realistic."
"Fancy that, more realistic! how beautiful!" and the Griffin sidled away, sniggering with self-gratified pride at his own achievement.
"I am afraid," explained the Lion to Christine and Ridgwell, "that he intends to sing."
"But can he sing?" inquired Ridgwell.
"No," said the Lion, "it is a wretched performance; yet, like all other people who cannot really sing, he is dying to be asked to do so, and I feel sure that some one will be misguided enough to ask him. You see," explained the Lion, "the Griffin cannot sing in tune, but like most people afflicted in the same way, he is totally unconscious of his failing, and really believes his own singing to be quite beautiful."
Christine and Ridgwell both laughed. "It must be very funny," they said.
"It is so funny," answered the Lion, "and so deplorable at the same time that it is almost beyond a joke."