Evening star., 1925-08-16

was at the back door. She thought 1t
was one of the Katfirs, and cried.
Come in!' got no response, left her
dusting, crossed the kitchen, and,
duster in hand. opened the door.
Standing full fronting her was a
lion.
The African lions, says an old nat
ural historian, are of two raceS-one
yellowish, the other brownsville the
Dutch colonists speak of the blue and
black kinds.
This was neither blue nor black
lion, neither exactly yellow nor brown;
sandy colored. perhaps male and
very large; dusty, too, from its travels.
and never perhaps had the essential
male and the essential female met so
squarely face TO face and SO suddenly
as when they stood now facing one
another across the doorsill.
But Mrs. Smith knew nothing of es-
sential males or female and little of
lions. She had seen pictures of them
in her school books, and on a visit to
London she had seen the lions in
Trafalgar Square. She had a vague
idea that lions eat people. and that
constituted her whole knowledge of
the most formidable of the species
felidae.
What she saw now recalled nothing
of all that. She saw before her a
large, honest-looking and rather fool
ish face. fuzzy and bearded, amber
eyed. dusty. and completing, as only
an intruding male could complete. the
sum OF her irritation that had been
growing all the morning.
She hit the face with her duster and
said Scat
Then. as it ambled off, she saw the
t,F 20 nd D he
up in her mind the word lion"
She closed the door and bolted IL
and went on with her work with a
better heart. Her irritation was some.
how relieved. She had almost sworn
for one thing, and the lion had given
her something to think about other
than dust and pie-making.
She thought quite a lot about lions
as she put the duster aside and began
the preparations for dinner. She re.
membered the tales about their eating
people, and came to the swift conclu-
sion, leaving out man-eaters, that lions
are harmless.
The thing had inspired no fear in
her mind, that logical mind which de-
rived perhaps half its inspiration from
instinct. She was not frightened by
the business, but she was still to be
badly frightened. In what way? Wait
John that morning. having ridden
into the town, called at Blooms store
and found the German in his shirt.
sleeves undoing parcels that had just
arrived by ox-wagon.
John had been commissioned to buy
pepper and tin tacks, and Bloom, the
universal provider looking at the piece
of paper on which Mrs. Smith had
written her requirements, noted the
amount of pepper required-one pound
She says she doesn't always want
to be sending in for things" said John
"and it's better to have enough to
start with"
She's d sensible woman said
Bloom. These Dutch fraus dey break
a plate and send to me for one plate,
break another and send to me for an
other, and 20 dey go on journeys all
the time and waste of time, and 20 1t
goes on, as If they lift round the cor
ner to send and not miles away. Now.
what l say is a woman's house ought
to be her store-everyding to hand
and enough of it. These Dutch fraus,
they send to me for haff a pound of
washing soda, please, Mr.. Bloom. Mrs
Smith, she orders a stone. Well, now,
dis pepper; I haff only pound in the
establishment, but she is welcome to
haff Desc are the tin tacks. Win you
not join me in glass of Vanderhum?'
John did, and with the parcels in
his pocket and the Vanderhum in his