The Tales of Huckleberry Hound: Season 1

8. That's No Lion

One morning, Huckleberry Hound was busy watering his flowers around his backyard stage. He had roses and violets, tulips and pansies, lilies and posies, daffodils and daisies and his most favorite, bluebells! As he watered the flowers, he sang a happy little tune.

"La la la la la la la!" he hummed.

But all of a sudden, he heard some rustling in the bushes.

"Eh?" he wondered. "What was that?"

He walked over to the bushes, and stared into them. "Aw shucks, must be a squirrel or somethin',' he muttered. "Say now...what's this? These here branches are gettin a mite overgrown. I reckon I oughtta trim them up a bit."

So Huck fetched his pruning shears and went to work trimming the bushes. But he soon hit a very tough branch that the shears couldn't quite cut through. "Golly!" he cried. "Why isn't this branch cutting through? Must be a pretty stubborn one."

He placed down his shears and tried to see if he could pull the branch out by hand instead. He tugged and pulled and fought with all his might. Finally with a loud crack, the branch snapped off in his paw and he went tumbling backward in somersaults onto the grass.

"Well, at least I got it loose!" he chuckled. "But now there's a big hole in the middle of my bushes."

Just then he heard the rustling again, and he stopped as the fur on the back of his neck stood on end. He could've sworn he saw something in the middle of all those leaves and branches. Something that looked like two small gleaming lights. No, not lights...eyes! Two great big eyes!

"YAAAAAAAAH!!!" he yelped. "W-who's there?!"

For a second he wondered if it was one of his friends hiding in there, trying to play a trick on him.

"Somebody must be trying to pull a fast one on me," he thought to himself. "But I better play along, just to get him to come out of hiding."

He whistled casually as he pretended to walk away, but then he grabbed the branch and started attacking the bush.

"You can't fool me!" he shouted. "I knows you're in there, Jinks! Come on outta here!"

But there was no answer. The bushes soon rustled again, and Huck started pushing branches aside, trying to get a good look at who was hiding in there. He soon came face to face with a tawny gold head surrounded by a big bushy brown mane, and a pair of golden brown eyes that stared curiously back at him. He blinked in disbelief and his heart skipped a beat as the realization sank in.

"Ah..ah..uh...gug..." he stammered fearfully. He was staring straight into the face of a great big lion! "A lion!!! YIKES!!!"

Huck screamed and dashed for his backyard stage, where he hid behind the curtain and hit the ground, curling himself into a trembling ball. "Don't eat me, don't eat me..." he mumbled as he shook fearfully.

He suddenly heard a soft, nasally voice. "Uh, hey chum," it said. "What's wrong? I'm not gonna hurt you!"

Huck nervously opened one eye, only to find that the lion had followed him backstage! He was about to open his mouth for another frightened yelp, but he froze instead.

"I'm really sorry I scared you like that," the lion said. "I guess I should apologize for being here too. Uh, I didn't know this was private property."

Huck slowly stood up and looked at the lion, feeling rather confused and relieved at the same time. "Oh, I'm sorry too," he said sheepishly. "Were you taking a nap in my bushes or something? Because I didn't mean to disturb you."

"Oh no, I was just trying to find a nice shady place to relax," the lion replied. "It's a pretty warm day today, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's real sunny and beautiful though!" Huck smiled, feeling a lot more calm.