Chicago (Ill.) -- Juvenile fiction; Family life -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Juvenile fiction
But one thing worried her. There was one small seal, who for some reason
or other, seemed to be always just a second too late to get a fish. Mary
Jane was sure he had had but one and all the others had had, oh, a lot.
And she couldn't help wishing all the others wouldn't be quite so grabby.
When the man who was feeding the seals got almost to the bottom of his big
basket, he stopped and looked at the crowd of children assembled for the
feeding. And as he looked, he spied Mary Jane's sober little face.
"Don't you like to watch them?" he asked her in surprise.
"Yes, I like to only they're so grabby," she replied promptly, "and he
hasn't had but one." She pointed out the little seal who was a bit too
slow.
"We'll fix that," said the keeper, kindly, "you just watch."
He tossed a great big fish close to the crowd of waiting seals, then,
quick as a flash and before they had had time to get that one, he tossed
another, straight at the little seal who was on the edge of the crowd.
"He got it! He got it!" cried Mary Jane happily, "he got it before they
had a chance!"
"And he's going to get another," said the keeper as he threw another and
still another, straight at the hungry little seal. "There!" he added as he
looked at the now empty basket, "that ought to do him till to-morrow."
Mary Jane thought he looked so comfortable now that surely he had had as
much as he needed for the day.
"Better hurry if we're to see the lions eat," said Mr. Holden, who during
the seals' dining hour had come up behind his little party.
"Lions!" exclaimed Mary Jane.
"Yes, hurry up!" called Betty and she and her brother who were quite
familiar with the park because of many previous visits, ran on toward a
big brick house near by.
Mary Jane wasn't afraid, but all the same she thought it would be more fun
to hold her father's hand and even though they were a bit behind, they got
into the lions' house in time.
Here the dinner was of meat, great big chunks of raw, red meat that the
keepers tossed into the cages. And it was so funny to watch! Just before
the keeper appeared, the lions and tigers and jackals and leopards were
pacing up and down their cages with such weird roars and grunts and growls
that Mary Jane held tightly to her father's hand and didn't go very close
to the iron bars. But when the keepers appeared with the meat there was a
wild scramble, and then silence except for the crunching and smacking of
eating. It certainly was different, oh, very, very different from anything
Mary Jane had ever seen before!
"Let's not wait here any more," suggested Alice, "let's show Dadah the
monkeys."
"Yes, and the foxes--the white ones," said Mary Jane, "they're my
favorites of all."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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