The tiger who would
be king
One morning, the
tiger woke up in the jungle and told his mate that he was king of beasts.
“leo, the lion, is
king of beasts,” she said.
“We need a
change,” said the tiger.”the creatures
are crying for a change.”
The tigerss listened
but she could hear no crying, except
that of her cubs.
“I”II be king of
beasts by the time the moon rises,”said the tiger.”It will be a yellow moon
with black stripes, in my honor.”
“oh sure,”said
the tigerss as she went to look after her young,one of whom,a male, very like
this father, had got an imaginary thorn in his paw.
The tiger
prowled through the jungle till he came to the lion’s den.”come out,”her
roared,”and greet the king of beasts! The king is dead, log live the king!”
Inside the den, the
lionees woke her mate.” the king is here to see you,” she said.
“Whats king?”he
inquired, sleepily.
“The king of
beasts,” she said.
“I am the king
of beasts,” roared leo and he charged out of the den to defend his crown
against the pretender.
It was a
terrible fight and it lasted until the setting of the sun. all the animals of the jungle joined in, som taking
the side of the tiger and others the side of the lion. Every creature from the
aardvark to the zebra took part in the struggle to overthrow the lion or to
repulse the tiger, and some did not knot know which they were fighting for, and
some fought for both, and some fought whoever was nearest and some fought for
the sake of fighting .
“What are we
fighting for?” someone asked the aardvark.
“The old
order,”said the aardvark.
“Whar are we
dying for ?”someone asked the zebra.
“The new
order,”said the zebra.
Whwn the moon
rose, fevered and gibbous, it shone upon a jungle in which nothing stirred
except a macaw and a cockatoo, screaming in horror. All the beasts were dead except the tiger, and
his days were numbered and his time was
ticking away. He was monarch ol all he surveyed, but it didn’t seem to mean
anything.
