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A short story by Orison Swett Marden |
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Love Tamed The Lion |
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Title: Love Tamed The Lion Author: Orison Swett Marden [More Titles by Marden] I would not enter on my list of friends, COWPER.
Touched with the devotion of her dumb friend, Rosa Bonheur--for it was she who had spoken--released from bondage the faithful animal whom, years before, she had bought from a keeper who declared him untamable. "In order to secure the affections of wild animals," said the great-hearted painter, "you must love them," and by love she had subdued the ferocious beast whom even the lion-tamers had given up as hopeless. When about to travel for two years, it being impossible to take her pet with her, Mademoiselle Bonheur sold him to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where she found him on her return, totally blind, owing, it is said, to the ill treatment of the attendant. Grieved beyond measure at the condition of poor Nero, she had him removed to her chateau, where everything was done for his comfort that love could suggest. Often in her leisure moments, when she had laid aside her painting garb, the artist would have him taken to her studio, where she would play with and fondle the enormous creature as if he were a kitten. And there, at last, he died happily, his great paws clinging fondly to the mistress who loved him so well, his sightless eyes turned upon her to the end, as if beseeching that she would not again leave him. [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |