“He was frightened. If he hadn’t been so frightened, he could have made the lion disappear, or he could have wished himself at home with his father and mother. He could have wished the lion would turn into a butterfly or daisy or a gnat. He could have wished many things, but he panicked and couldn’t think carefully. ‘I wish I were a rock,’ he said, and he became a rock.”
“I bet you don’t know anyone else called Elsa. There was just this lion called Elsa, years ago. There was a book written about her, and they made a film. They sometimes show it on the television so maybe you’ve seen it. My mum called me after Elsa the lion. I was a very tiny baby, smaller than all the others in the hospital, but I was born with lots of hair. ”
“I bet you don’t know anyone else called Elsa. There was just this lion called Elsa, years ago. There was a book written about her, and they made a film. They sometimes show it on the television so maybe you’ve seen it. My mum called me after Elsa the lion. I was a very tiny baby, smaller than all the others in the hospital, but I was born with lots of hair. ”
“It seemed that, at a distance, for the past month, he had heard lions roaring, and smelled their strong odor seeping as far away as his study door. But, being busy, he had paid it no attention.”
“Emergency Two- Attack by an Unfriendly Lion. Lion attack, Ezzie claimed, was an everyday occurrence in the jungle. What you had to do to survive was wait until the last moment, until the lion was upon you, and then you had to ram your arm all the way down the lion’s throat.”
“Now daddy has read a story, gotten the toothbrush, brought a drink, changed the sheet on the bed, cleaned up the water, brought the potty, looked for a lion, found teddy, and gotten very tired.”
″‘Lion attacks, move back two spaces,’ read Judy.
‘Gosh how exciting,’ said Peter, in a very unexcited voice.
‘Peter,’ she whispered, ‘turn around very, very slowly.‘”
″‘No one would come from the zoo because they wouldn’t believe us,’ said Judy. ‘And you know how upset Mother would be if there was a lion in the bedroom. We started this game, and now we have to finish it.‘”
“Let dogs delight to bark and bite.
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight:
For ‘tis their nature to.
But children you should never let
Such angry passions rise;
Your little hands were never made
To tear each others eyes.”