why did Bertie run out to the waterhole? (Bertie and the lion cub)
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Bertie and the Lion
One morning, a week or so later, Bertie was woken by a chorus of urgent neighing. He jumped out of
his bed and ran to the window. A herd of zebras was scattering away from the waterhole, chased by a
couple of hyenas. Then he saw more hyenas, three of them, standing stock still, noses pointing, eyes
fixed on the waterhole. It was only now that Bertie saw the lion cub. But this one wasn’t white at all.
He was covered in mud, with his back to the waterhole, and he was waving a pathetic paw at the
hyenas who were beginning to circle. The lion cub had nowhere to run to, and the hyenas were sidling
ever closer.
Bertie was downstairs in a flash, leaping off the veranda and racing barefoot across the compound,
shouting at the top of his voice. He threw open the gate and charged down the hill towards the
waterhole, yelling and screaming and waving his arms like a wild thing. Startled at this sudden
intrusion, the hyenas turned tail and ran, but not far. Once within range Bertie hurled a broadside of
pebbles at them, and they ran off again, but again not far. Then he was at the waterhole and between
the lion cub and the hyenas, shouting at them to go away. They didn’t. They stood and watched,
uncertain for a while. Then they began to circle again, closer, closer…
That was when the shot rang out. The hyenas bolted into the long grass, and were gone. When Bertie
turned round he saw his mother in her nightgown, rifle in hand, running towards him down the hill. He
had never seen her run before. Between them they gathered up the mud-matted cub and brought him
home. He was too weak to struggle, though he tried. As soon as they had given him some warm milk,
they dunked him in the bath to wash him. As the first of the mud came off, Bertie saw he was white
underneath.
“You see!” he cried triumphantly. “He is white! He is. I told you, didn’t I? He’s my white lion!” His
mother still could not bring herself to believe it. Five baths later, she had to.
They sat him down by the stove in a washing basket and fed him again, all the milk he could drink, and
he drank the lot. Then he lay down and slept.
He was still asleep when Bertie’s father got back at lunch time. They told him how it had all happened.
“Please, Father. I want to keep him,” Bertie said.
“And so do I,” said his mother. “We both do.” And she spoke as Bertie had never heard her speak
before, her voice strong, determined.
Bertie’s father didn’t seem to know quite how to reply. He just said: “We’ll talk about it later,” and
then he walked out.
They did talk about it later when Bertie was supposed to be in bed. He wasn’t, though. He heard them
arguing. He was outside the sitting-room door, watching, listening. His father was pacing up and down.
“He’ll grow up, you know,” he was saying. “You can’t keep a grown lion, you know that.”
“And you know we can’t just throw him to the hyenas,” replied his mother. “He needs us, and maybe
we need him. He’ll be someone for Bertie to play with for a while.” And then she added sadly: “After
all, it’s not as if he’s going to have any brothers and sisters, is it?”
Answer:
Bertie ran to the water hole because he saw a lion cub and surrounded by hyenas