Bertie knew there was something in the wind. His mother had been sad in recent days, not sick, just strangely sad. The lion had just lain down beside him, his head warm on Bertie's feet when Father cleared his throat and began, "You'll soon be eight, Bertie. A boy needs a proper education. We've found the right place for you, a school near Salisbury in England. "
His heart filled with a terrible fear. All Bertie could think of was his white lion. "But the lion, " he cried, "What about the lion?"
"I'm afraid there's something else I have to tell you, " his father said. Looking across at Bertie's mother, he took a deep breath. Then he told Bertie he had met a circus (马戏团) owner from France, who was now inAfrica looking for lions to buy. He would come to their farm in a few days.
"No! You can't send him to a circus!" said Bertie. "People will come to see him. He'll be shut in a cage. I promised him he never would be. Andtheywill laugh at him. He'd rather die if he loses his pride!" But as Bertie looked across the table at them, he knew their minds were quite made up.
Bertie felt completely hurt. He waited until he heard his father's deep breathing next door. With his white lion, he walked downstairs quietly in his pajamas, took down his father's gun from the case and stepped out into the night. He ran and ran till his legs could run no more. As the sun came up over the grassland, he climbed to the top of a hill and sat down, his arms round the lion's neck. The time had come.
"Be wild now, " he whispered. "You've got to be wild. Don't ever come home. All my life I'll think of you. I promise I will. "He put his head down in the lion's neck. Then, Bertie climbed down the hill and walked away.
When he looked back, the lion was still sitting there watching him; but then the lion stood up, yawned, ran down after him. Bertie shouted at him, but he kept coming. He threw sticks. He threw stones. Nothing worked.
There was only one thing left to do. With tears filling his eyes and his mouth, he lifted the gun and fired over the lion's head.
