Disclosed to view at length, the birthday present was seen to be a fairly large chocolate lion lying upon a pedestal. The entire sweet-meat model was covered in thick golden paper; this was quickly stripped off, and Ridgwell did the honours as possessor. "I'll eat his head half, Chris, and give you the other half; I think that's a fair division." "Right," agreed Christine; "we can't eat more than that to-night, and the pedestal part will do for the morning." "I can't understand Lal disappointing us to-night as he has done," said Ridgwell, as he slowly munched his chocolate. "Can you, Chris?" "No--isn't this chocolate good, Ridgie?" "Yes, but fancy having to be contented with a chocolate lion when we know a real one! On my birthday too, and yet he promised faithfully we should see him again." "He has forgotten us," confessed the children as they went to bed. "Suppose he has too much to think of," said Ridgie; "he can't remember everything." Christine never knew quite how long she had been asleep that night, before she distinctly heard muffled mutterings from her brother Ridgie's bed the other side of their little room. Surely Ridgie couldn't be saying his prayers at this time of night; then Christine was certain she heard half-smothered sobs. "Ridgie, what's the matter; are you crying?" demanded Christine. The sobs became very audible now, and even an apparent effort to stifle them with the bed-clothes did not seem in any way to lessen them. Christine pressed the button of the electric light, and in the sudden illumination regarded her brother across the room. "Ridgie, why are you crying? are you in pain? have you eaten too much?" "No," sobbed Ridgie, "no, but oh! Chrissie, I've--I've--we've eaten Lal." Christine sat up in bed. "Ridgie," demanded Christine, "are you dreaming?" "No," whispered Ridgie, between his sobs; "don't you remember-- Christian child or Pagan child Which is my denomination? Have I eaten dear old Lal In my birthday celebration? Here, overcome by recollections, Ridgwell broke down completely. "I _have_ eaten him," moaned Ridgwell; "at least, _we've_ eaten him, for you helped. He said we should eat him, and we've done it. That's how Lal meant to come to us; now, I remember, it was exactly like him. Just as--as he is in Trafalgar Square on his pedestal. Oh, Chris, after all the Christians have eaten a lion; he said we should; we aren't Christians any longer, we're Pagans, and--and," confessed Ridgwell with a final outburst, "I feel like a cannibal; it's beastly." Christine had become quite pale during this recital; but she thought for awhile before replying. "Perhaps, Ridgie, Lal meant us to eat him--I mean his likeness in chocolate--all the time, and most likely he isn't angry with us at all. He might have arranged it all as a joke."