I Wonder If The Lion Knows

I wonder if the lion knows
That people are afraid
To meet him when for walks he goes
Beneath the jungle shade;
And when they scream and run away,
O, does he laugh at their dismay?
And does he say with head tossed high:
“How ‘terribully’ fierce am I”?
I’d like to know
If this is so;
But if I met a lion some day
I would not ask, I’d run away,
For surely it is not a treat
To meet a lion on the street!