Chicago (Ill.) -- Juvenile fiction; Family life -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Juvenile fiction
Such an afternoon as it was! Mary Jane tried to remember each thing they
did so she could tell her father when he met them after three o'clock. But
she couldn't remember half what they had done. She knew they saw the
little foxes--such pretty, dainty white and tan colored foxes that played
together like little pet kittens and made her want to hold them in her lap
and pet them. She knew they saw the bears--great big bears and middle
sized bears and little bit o' bears just like in the story book, and she
fed them peanuts which they caught very deftly in their soft cushioned
paws. But all the rest, she really couldn't remember in the right
order--there were kangaroos and buffaloes and a giraffe who stuck his long
neck over the top of a great high fence and made Mary Jane think of
nothing so much as a funny paper picture. And then of course the
monkeys--dozens of them and queer birds with curious colored feathers and
funny bills and feet. Really, she had seen in that one afternoon, more
animals than she had guessed lived in the whole world, oh, many more!
"But have you seen the seals?" asked Mr. Merrill who met them at the bird
house.
No, they hadn't.
"It's almost four o'clock," said Mr. Merrill, looking at his watch, "and
Mr. Holden said they ate at four and we should meet him there, so let's
hurry."
It was a good thing they did hurry for other folks seemed to know, too,
that the seals were fed at four. From all directions, folks could be seen
walking toward the big enclosed pond where the seals were kept. But, by
hurrying, they got there in time to stand close to the iron fence where
they could see the antics of those queerest of animals, the seals.
One would suppose that even the seals knew it was nearly four o'clock,
dinner time, for they were so excited and eager. They barked and swam and
flung themselves around vigorously as though they could hardly stand
waiting for anything. Then, just at four, a man came out of a near-by
building. In his hand he carried a basket of fish--a great, well-filled
basket. He came over to a little platform close by where the Merrill and
Holden children were standing; so they could see everything.
He picked up a big fish, tossed it over into the rocky island in the
middle of the seals' pond and then! such a scrambling as there was till
the middle-sized seal with a few ungainly flops, grabbed the fish and
gulped it down in one bite.
Then he threw another fish and another and another--one after the other so
fast that Mary Jane felt sure the seals must get all mixed up about
catching them. But they didn't. Those seals must have been smarter than
folks had thought for they seemed to know, every time, just about where
the fish was to hit on the rocks and to know, too, just how to get to that
particular spot the quickest. Mary Jane thought it very wonderful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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