Just then, to the inexpressible relief of the tired, hungry and bored lovers, the animal showed signs of satiety. He quit eating, looked around with an air of satisfaction, stretched himself, and made a start, as if about to leave the place. Their gratification, however, was short. He walked around a few steps, and then, to their dismay, lay down under the tree on which Koree was perched, and disposed himself for an afternoon nap. Koree looked at Sosee, and was silent. Sosee returned the look, but was too disgusted and empty for utterance. “If that beast sleeps as long as he eats,” she said, “we will get neither supper nor slumber to night.” “We will, however,” returned Koree, “be safe; for neither ape nor snake will attack us with such a watch at our door. So one danger wards off another.” They were now reconciling themselves to spend the balance of the day, and perhaps the night, in this situation, and also to add to their weariness, hunger and disgust, the additional discomforts of sleeplessness and danger. For as Sosee had never slept on a tree (the Ammi having come to the ground before her birth), it was feared that, although her feet were still prehensile, and served her well in climbing, they might fail her from lack of practice when it came to holding to a limb when asleep. Koree determined not to sleep under these circumstances, both because he could not trust himself on a tree when asleep, and because he wanted to watch Sosee in order to rescue her from the mammoth in case she should fall. Love up a tree was thus faithful to the last. While they were making their preparations for a continued disappointment, however, an accident, which at first seemed disastrous, came happily to their relief. Koree, in restlessly changing his position, fell off the tree, and came down with a thump on the back of the mammoth. Whether Koree or the monster was more frightened we know not. Koree, however, was uninjured, the great beast breaking his fall, for the huge back of the animal reached, when lying down, well up toward the branches on which Koree was sitting. Sosee was, perhaps, the most frightened of all, as one is often most scared at the danger of another; and she gave a scream which the animal hearing, believed, in connection with the thump on his back, to be caused by some other animal that was attacking him. He started from his sleep and his position at once, and, without looking for the cause of danger, rushed through the forest, while Koree ran up another tree and waited till the brute was at a safe distance. Then both he and Sosee came down, and returned thanks to the great Shoozoo for their deliverance. CHAPTER XII. [Illustration] The two lovers had no other adventure until they came the next afternoon to the farther side of the swamp, where the Lali were settled. There they were astonished at the multitude of the Lali, who greatly outnumbered the Ammi, fairly swarming in the trees and in the open country beyond.