It was three days after the lion had broken loose, and evening was approaching, when Mrs. Jason, wife of the farmer who had been so kind to the Browns, came hurrying down to the automobile beside the road.  She was out of breath and seemed much excited.

“Oh, Mr. Brown!” she exclaimed.  “Do you know anything about doctoring?”

“About doctoring!  Why?  Is Mr. Jason ill?”

“No, but I’ve got a badly hurt boy up at my house.  He’s all scratched up.”

“Has he been picking berries?” asked Bunny.

“No.  They’re worse scratches than that.  Big, deep ones on his face, hands and shoulders.  I’ve bandaged him as best I could, and sent Mr. Jason for the doctor; but I was wondering if you could do anything until Dr. Fandon came.”

“A scratched boy?” repeated Mr. Brown slowly.  “What scratched him?”

“A great big lion, he says!” exclaimed Mrs. Jason.  “I declare I’m so excited I don’t know what to do!” and she sat down on a stool Mrs. Brown placed for her near the back steps of the automobile.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE BARKING DOG

Mr. and Mrs. Brown, not to say Bunny, Sue and Uncle Tad, were very, very much surprised when Mrs. Jason said the boy had been scratched by a lion.

“Are you sure about it?” asked the children’s father.

“That’s what he says,” replied the farmer’s wife.  “He is certainly badly scratched, as I could see for myself.  Whether it was by a lion or something else I can’t say, never having seen a lion’s scratches.  The boy might be making up some story, but he certainly is scratched.”

“The circus lion!” cried Mrs. Brown.  “Oh, that must be the one that did it!  The lion must be roaming around here!  We must lock the automobile and stay inside!”

“Now please don’t get excited,” begged Mr. Brown.  “In the first place this boy may not be telling the truth.  He is scratched, for Mrs. Jason has seen the marks and bandaged them up, she says.  But it may be the boy fell down in the bushes, or among the rocks and got scratched that way.  Or it may have been some other wild animal in the woods that attacked him.  There are some animals around here, aren’t there?” he asked the farmer’s wife.

“Well, skunks, groundhogs and the like of that, with maybe a fox or two.  Of course foxes or groundhogs will bite if any one tries to catch them, but I don’t know that they’d scratch, though they might if they were put to it.  I never saw such scratches as these.  And, as you say, Mrs. Brown, it may have been the circus lion which is hiding around here.”

“You don’t seem very frightened over it,” said Mrs. Brown.

“Well, what’s the use of being frightened until I see it?” asked Mrs. Jason.  “I’m more worried about that poor boy.  I wish I could do something for him to ease his pain until Dr. Fandon comes.  He may be a long while.”