But Tom staid, and he was glad that he did so. The keeper of the lions entered the cage, and the excitement began. The poor beasts were all hungry, but the lioness and the little cubs were fed first; and when King Lion seemed ready to tear the bars down in his fury, the keeper fired off a pistol, and the angry creature leaped into the air. I think even his own little baby cubs were afraid of him. When he grew quieter, he, too, was fed, and Tom ran to tell Trixie all about it.
"I am glad I did not stay," she said, "and I have had a very good time, myself. I have been looking at the giraffes in harness, and I do think they make such funny looking horses. They look very much like ostriches —in the neck," she added, and Mr. Barnum laughed.
The giraffe is so tall that it can take its food from high trees, and it very seldom stoops to eat. But when a piece of sugar was put on the ground, the temptation was so great that it bent its head down between its fore feet, placed near together, and gobbled with a half-glide. Oh, how the people laughed at its awkwardness.
"What would mama say if we ate like that, Trixie?" said Tom.
"You could'nt do it," said the boy who had refused to pull the elephants "front tail."
Far off, in one corner, the children saw something which they thought, at first, was a dog, but as they came closer, it sat up like a monkey.
"That is a baboon," said Mr. Barnum. "It is so cross that I don't believe it has a friend in the world; while the bright-looking baby ourang-outang there, is always sure of a petting. That gray old grandfather ourang-outang, however, can be very ugly; but we must always be patient with old people," said he, smiling.
The Happy Family, they all declared, was less exciting, but quite as interesting, as the lions' cage. They had enjoyed seeing the monkeys alone, but a monkey isn't half a monkey until you see him with other animals. Two solemn, old owls sat perched in one corner, and, when a monkey flung an orange into the face of one of them, the other wouldn't even wink. A funny old gray fellow put his paw through the bars and pulled off Tom's cap, and it was only by the offer of a handful of nuts that the owner got it back.
Another took a guinea-pig in her lap, and rocked it as if it were her baby; but the sly chance of pulling a rabbit's ear was too much for mother monkey, so she was off again, tossing a nut at a squirrel as she passed.
White mice, little and pink-eyed, nibbled and squeaked, while the friendly cats lapped their milk close by; and even the parrots seemed to love the monkeys – a thing never heard of before.
But how could they all fail to be happy together, living as they did, in a menagerie! Oh! how the boys and girls envied them, feeling that they would almost be willing to give up quarreling with their dear brothers and sisters to enjoy such a life!