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Flora now began to look more wide awake. She 

 hurried after it and this time gave It a good, rous- 

 ing stroke with her mighty paw. Instead of being 

 hurt, the balloon bounded away as lightly as a 

 feather. 



And now began a wild chase after the balloon. 

 Up and down and around the cage after it went 

 the lioness. At last she got it in a corner and 

 struck her paw down upon it. The balloon broke 

 with a loud report. Flora bounded as though she 

 had been shot, and retreated to the furthest corner 

 of the cage. 



There she crouched for some time before she 

 gathered courage to go over and examine the 

 little, wrinkled piece of rubber which was all that 

 was left of the balloon. After that Flora contented 

 herself with her cat for a plaything. 



But a sad thing happened. The cat was killed 

 by a mowing-machine one day when it was out 

 for a stroll. Flora soon began to be very uneasy. 

 As time went on and the cat did not return, she 

 grew more and more anxious, pacing up and down 

 her cage with her head up and her tail waving. 



Now and then she would stop and give a roar, 

 looking anxiously up or down the building to see 



