Forest Footfalls 269 



I was a hunter in the African jungles and 

 was lying by my camp fire asleep when a huge 

 lion began creeping slowly upon me, intent 

 upon devouring me or carrying me off into 

 the jungle alive. 



I was powerless to move or cry out and the 

 lion drew nearer and nearer. 



The horror of the situation caused me to 

 wake to what seemed to me quite as bad a 

 plight as that in my dream. 



I was not an African lion hunter, that was 

 plain, but only a terribly scared small boy 

 who had fallen asleep in the woods. The 

 camp fire had gone out and there was nothing 

 ominous in that, but there was another consid- 

 eration and here was the difficulty. 



A mighty animal, probably a bear, was 

 standing guard over me. I could see the out- 

 line of the massive head against the sky, the 

 glow of two large yellow eyes, and could 

 feel the hot breath of the beast upon my 

 face. 



Then I remembered dozens of horrible 

 stories that I had read, of how wild creatures 



