"Who wouldn't?" growled the Magazine Lion.

"Do you mean to tell me," asked Diana, with her most engaging and
sprightly air, "that this splendid place is a Library, all full of
books, and that you are its most prominent figures, its figureheads,
so to speak? How interesting! I have travelled a great deal--under
the name of Pasht or Bast, in Egypt, where the Cats liked me;
and under the name of Artemis in Greece; and under my own name
in Italy. Believe me, I have seen all things that the moon shines
upon. But I do not remember having seen Lions on a Library before.
How original! How appropriate! How suggestive! But what does it
suggest? What are you here for?"

"For educational purposes," said the Academic Lion.

"To catch the eye," said the Magazine Lion, "same as head-lines in
a newspaper."

"I see," exclaimed Diana. "You are here to keep the people from
getting at the books? How modern!"

This remark made the Academic Lion look like a Sphinx, as if he
knew something but did not want to tell. But the Magazine Lion was
distinctly flattered.

"Right you are," said he cheerfully, "or next door to it. We don't
propose to keep the people out, only the authors. Why, when this
place was publicly opened there was not a single author in the
exhibit, except John Bigelow."