Once upon a time, early one morning, Leo the lion discovered something in the dense grass that grew beside the path in the forest. He went up to it and soon found that it was a gold crown that had been lost by the Queen of Birds, while she was taking a stroll through the forest. All this Leo learned from the brilliant colors and plumage of the crown and from the fact that it was a royal and kingly crown.
All the other animals who came up and looked at the crown wanted to keep it and who do you think questioned as to whether they ought not to do so? The little rabbit said, “For my part,” said he, “I have a very fine family and I think a crown would look just as well on my head as on that of old Tyrant.”
Then came an old tortoise who was so old that he was wise and slow. He said, “Was the Queen of Birds just to lose such a thing as this? Kings and Queens always wear crowns. Is this thing by right of ownership a Crown? First, let us see.”
So they sent messengers to the Queen of Birds who soon answered with another little bird and said, “No, indeed it is not mine. I never saw such a thing as that before. What do you all want with me?”
Then they sent to the Queen of Beasts and she sent them to the Queen of Insects and so they went on till they had asked about a hundred royal people besides the Queen of the Wind and the Queen of the Sea and they all said, “Oh, no. Certainly not,” except some old fogey fishes that said all about the bubbles around the crown and its rheumatic shape.
Suddenly all the animals heard a great noise and a rush in the forest and then came the Royal Heron flapping her wings with great splutter under the weight of the crown on her head. Suddenly all the animals heard a great noise and a rush in the forest and then came the Royal Heron flapping her wings with great splutter under the weight of the crown on her head.
“Good morning to all of you,” said she. “Did any of you lose a crown? It must be mine I think because it is so heavy to carry that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was made of lead. I shall take it and soar into the clouds where such things belong, and by the side of my flock of birds when they get there.”
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I wonder what is come to our old cormorant? He was all coated with gold, and was repairing the royal flunkeys’ wings yesterday. He was quite alive. What can they have done with him? I wouldn’t be in the old King’s shoes for a good large sum of money. Ah, mama! what concoction have they been doing to him in the Forest of the Crown?”
“There comes the whole army of noble reformers of the Royal Race and the Cooperage,” exclaimed in his twinkling-eyed way the stuffed Mentor.
Leo the King and all the others had come to the conclusion that King Cormorant had lost his crown.