Tom was very much interested in the sea birds,--the albatross, the penguin, and the auk, but there was such a crowd around their cage that he came away grumbling.
"Never mind, Tom," said Mr. Barnum: "come and see the fisherman that carries his basket under his chin!"
Tom did not understand this joke at first, but Mr. Barnum explained that he meant the pelican, which has a pouch under its beak in which it carries home the fish to feed its young.
"Look out, Trixie!" cried Tom, when they saw the whale. "He swallowed a man once."
"Did this _very whale_ swallow a man?" asked Trixie, solemnly; "and did you _know_ the man?"
"Well, no--not exactly; but I knew _of_ him."
"O, Tom Van Tassel! That was as much as fifty years ago, and Jonah was a bible man. The whale looks kind and I'm not afraid of him," and Trixie went up very close. "But what makes him so floppy? I should think the whalebones in him would stiffen him."
And then Mr. Barnum explained that what we call whalebone is something that grows in the mouth of a whale, and is used as a strainer, to separate the water from the food.
They thought the shark a mean-looking creature, and they were surprised to learn that it turns on its back to bite.
"I'm tired of fish--let us find something furious!" said Tom; so they started toward the lion's cage. The great, grand king of them all was taking his afternoon rest, and he opened his eyes and looked at them once, as if to say, "Behold and admire! I am the King of Beasts, and you are only little human Yankees! I had these bars put up to keep off the crowd. Kings must be neither pushed nor hustled." Then he waved his paw with a flourish which meant, "Begone!" and Mr. Barnum, seeing the roar coming, said, "Come on, Toodles."
But Tom staid, and he was glad that he did so. The keeper of the lions entered the cage, and the excitement began. The poor beasts were all hungry, but the lioness and the little cubs were fed first; and when King Lion seemed ready to tear the bars down in his fury, the keeper fired off a pistol, and the angry creature leaped into the air. I think even his own little baby cubs were afraid of him. When he grew quieter, he, too, was fed, and Tom ran to tell Trixie all about it.