The animal story book Author:Ernest Thompson Seton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SAINT GERASIMUS AND THE LION (from The Book Of Saints And Friendly Beasts.) By ABBIE FARWELL BROWN. NE fine morning Saint Ger- asimus was walking briskly ... more »along the bank of the River Jordan. By his side plodded a little donkey bearing on his back an earthen jar; for they had been down to the river together to get water, and were taking it back to the monastery on the hill for the monks to drink at their noonday meal. Gerasimus was singing merrily, touching the stupid little donkey now and then with a twig of olive leaves to keep him from going to sleep. This was in the far East, in the Holy Land, so the sky was very blue and the ground smelled hot. Birds were singing around them in the trees and overhead, all kinds of strange and beautiful birds. But suddenly Gerasimus heard a sound unlike any bird he had ever known; a sound which was not a bird's song at all, unless some newly invented kind had a bass voice which ended in a howl. The little donkey stopped suddenly,and bracing his fore legs and cocking forward his long, flappy ears, looked afraid and foolish. Gerasimus stopped too. But he was so wise a man that he could not look foolish. And he was too good a man to be afraid of anything. Still, he was a little surprised. " Dear me," he said aloud, " how very strange that sounded. What do you suppose it was ? " Now there was no one else anywhere near, so he must have been talking to himself. For he could never have expected that donkey to know anything about it. But the donkey thought he was being spoken to, so he wagged hia head, and said, " He-haw!" which was a very silly answer indeed, and did not help Gerasimus at all. He seized the donkey by the halter and waited to see what would happen. He peered up and down and around and about, but there was nothing to be s...« less