"Oh, isn't that terrible! I wouldn't go into the cage of a real, live lion for anything!"

You see they didn't know Nero was quite tame, and that the jungle beast liked the man who fed him and was kind to him.

"Now do your tricks, Nero!" said the trainer.

And Nero did. He jumped over a stick; he stood up on his hind legs and, putting his paws on the trainer's shoulders, made believe to kiss the man, though of course he only touched the man's cheek with his cold, damp nose, just as, sometimes, your dog puts his nose against your cheek to show how much he likes you; next Nero stood up on a sort of upside-down washtub, or pedestal; and after that he jumped through a hoop covered with paper.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," said the trainer, speaking to the circus crowd, "I will do the best trick of all. I will have Nero, my pet lion, open his mouth as wide as he can, and I will put my head inside!"

And then, all of a sudden, some little boy in the crowd piped up and cried out:

"Oh, Mister, don't do that! He might bite your head off!"

Everybody laughed at that, even Nero's trainer, who said:

"Oh, I'm not afraid. Nero is a good lion and wouldn't bite me. Come on now, old fellow, for the last and best trick of all!" cried the man, and he cracked his whip, though of course he did not strike Nero with it.

The circus lion knew just what to do, for he had been trained in this trick. I didn't say anything about it before, because I was saving it as a surprise for you.

"Open your mouth!" suddenly cried the trainer, and Nero opened his jaws as wide as he could.

"Oh! Ah! Look!" cried the people, as they saw his big, red tongue and the white, sharp teeth.

"Now!" cried the trainer, and into the lion's mouth he popped his head.

Everybody in the big circus tent was quiet for a moment, and then all the crowd cried out, and clapped their hands and stamped their shoes on the wooden steps beneath their feet.

"There, you see how tame my lion is!" cried the man, as he pulled his head from Nero's mouth, and bowed to the people, who were still clapping and whistling.

"You are a good lion!" said the trainer to Nero in a low voice. "Now you shall have a nice piece of meat, a sweet bone to gnaw, and a good drink of water. You did your first tricks very well indeed."

Nero did not quite know what it was all about, but he felt that he had done well. It did not hurt him to open his mouth and let the man put in his head, but it tickled the lion's tongue a little, so that Nero wanted to sneeze. And that wouldn't have been a good thing for the trainer. However Nero didn't do it.

"What makes the people make so much noise?" asked Nero of Dido, the dancing bear, who came into the larger tent just then.

"Oh, that's because they liked your tricks," was the answer. "They always clap and stamp their feet when anything pleases them. They do that when I dance on the platform on Tum Tum's back."

And, surely enough, the circus crowds did. They liked the tricks of Dido, the dancing bear, as much as they had those of Nero.

After a while Nero's cage was wheeled back into the tent where the wagons of the other animals were kept, and Nero was given something good to eat, and fresh water to drink. Then he felt happy and fell asleep.

So Nero began his circus life, and he kept it up all that summer. He traveled about from place to place, and soon became used to doing his tricks, having the man put his head into his mouth and seeing the crowds show their surprise.

One day, when the show was being given in a large city, there was a big crowd in the animal tent. Near Nero's cage were some boys, and I am sorry to say they were not all kind boys, though perhaps they didn't know any better. One of the boys had a rotten apple in his hand and he said to another lad:

"I'm going to give this rotten apple to one of the elephants and see what a funny face he makes when he chews it!"

"That'll be lots of fun," said the second boy.

I don't, myself, call that fun. It isn't fair to fool animals when you know so much more than they do. However we'll see what happened.

Nero saw the boys standing near his cage, and he heard them talking, though he did not, of course, know what they were saying. But he could smell the rotten apple. Often, in the jungle, he had smelled bad fruit, and he knew that the monkeys would not eat it.

"If bad fruit isn't good for monkeys it isn't good for elephants," thought Nero, as he saw the boy hold out the rotten apple toward Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.

Tum Tum reached out his trunk to take what he thought was something good, but Nero roared, in animal language, of course:

"Don't take that apple, Tum Tum! It's bad!" And then Nero sprang against the bars of his cage, and, reaching out a paw, with its long, sharp claws, made a grab for the boy's arm as he held out the rotten apple.

"Look out! The lion's going to bite you!" cried a man to the boy, and the boy was so frightened that he gave a howl and dropped the rotten apple and ran through the crowd, knocking to the right and left every one in his way.

Nero roared again and dashed against the bars of his cage, and while women and children screamed and men shouted, Nero's keeper and some of the other animal men ran up to see what the matter was. There was great excitement in the circus tent.



CHAPTER X

NERO RUNS AWAY

Once more Nero roared as he looked over the heads of the crowd to see what had become of the boy who had tried to give Tum Tum the rotten apple.

"Hold on there, my lion boy! What's the matter? Don't do that!" called Nero's trainer to him in a kind voice. "What happened, anyhow? Why are you roaring so, and trying to get out of your cage? Don't you like it here in the circus?"

Nero stopped roaring at once, and no longer dashed against the bars of his cage. Perhaps he thought that, as long as his kind trainer was at hand, everything would be all right.

"Did some one try to hurt my lion friend?" asked the trainer, looking at the crowd near the cage.

"No," some one answered. "But the lion, all at once, tried to reach out and claw a boy who was going to give an apple to an elephant. I saw that. I don't know what made the lion act so."

"There must have been some good reason," said the trainer. "Nero is a good lion. He wouldn't want to claw a boy just for fun."

And then one of the other boys, who was in the crowd that had been around the lad who had the rotten apple, spoke up and said:

"Mister, Jimmie was going to play a trick on the elephant. He was going to give him a bad apple just to see what a funny face the elephant would make."

"Oh, ho! Now I understand!" said the trainer. "My lion must have smelled the rotten apple and didn't like it. He tried to scare away the boy, I guess."

"Well, the boy was scared all right," said a man. "He ran away as fast as he could go."

"He ought to!" said the trainer very sharply.

The excitement, caused by the loud roaring of Nero, was over now, though, for a time, many persons had been frightened, for Nero had sent his powerful voice rumbling through the circus tent as his father, and the other big lions, had used to make the ground tremble when they roared in the jungle.

Then, as things grew quiet and the people passed along the row of cages, looking at the animals, Tum Tum, who heard what had happened, turned to Nero and said:

"I'm much obliged to you, my dear lion friend, for scaring the boy who wanted to give me the rotten apple. Most likely, as soon as I'd have taken it in my trunk, I'd have smelled that it was bad, and I would not have eaten it. But some one might have given me a popcorn ball in my trunk at the same time, and that might have smelled so good that I wouldn't have noticed the rotten apple until too late. So you saved me from having a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm much obliged to you."

"Oh, that's all right," replied Nero. "I'm glad I could do you a favor. You have been kind to me, pushing my cage around, and I want to be kind to you."

So the two circus animals were better friends than ever, and that day in the performers' tent Nero opened his mouth very wide indeed when his trainer wanted to put in his head.

For many weeks Nero traveled about the country with the circus, living in his iron-barred cage, from which he was never taken. Nero might be a tame lion, but the circus folk did not think it would be safe to let him out, as Dido, the dancing bear, was allowed to come out of his cage.

However, later on, something happened—

But there, I must tell about it in the right place.

So, as I said, Nero went about from town to town with the circus, living in his cage, eating and doing his tricks whenever his trainer called on him to do so. And the people who came to the circus performances seemed to like, very much, seeing Nero do his tricks. And they always clapped loudest and longest when the trainer put his head in the lion's mouth. And Nero never bit the trainer once, nor so much as scratched him, even with the tip of one sharp tooth.

One afternoon of a long hot day, when big crowds had come to the circus, and after Nero had done his tricks, and Dido, the dancing bear, had done his, and Chunky, the happy hippo, had opened his big mouth so his keeper could toss loaves of bread into it—one afternoon Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, swaying as he chewed his hay, spoke through his trunk and said:

"Something is going to happen!"

"What makes you think so?" asked Nero, from his cage.

"Well, I sort of feel it," answered Tum Tum. "I think we are going to have a big thunderstorm, such as we used to have in the jungle!"

"I hope we do!" growled a striped tiger in a cage next to Nero. "I like a good thunder storm, where the rain comes down and cools you off! I like to feel the squidgie mud of the jungle, too, and when it thunders I growl as loudly as I can. I like a storm. I want to get wet!"



"I like a thunder storm, too," said Tum Tum. "But you animals in your cages—you lions and tigers—aren't very likely to feel any rain. We elephants will get wet, and so will the camels and the horses, for we walk out in the open. But, Nero, I guess you in your cage won't feel the storm any."

"No, I don't believe we shall," agreed the lion. "But I wish we could. I am so hot and dry, sitting in this cage, that I wish I could get out and splash around in the mud and water. So the sooner the thunder storm comes the better."

"It isn't likely to do you much good," went on Tum Tum, "but it will be cooler, afterward, anyhow."

And it certainly was very hot in the circus tent that day. It did not get much cooler after dark, and when the circus was over, and the big tents taken down, it was still hot.

"We are not going to travel on the train to go to the next town where the circus is to show," said Tum Tum to Nero, as the men began hitching horses to the animal cages and the big tent wagons. "We are to go along the road, in the open."

"Then maybe I can see the lightning!" exclaimed Nero. "And, if it rains, I can stick my paws out through the bars and get them wet."

"Maybe," said Tum Tum. Then he had to go off to help push some of the heavy wagons, and it was some time before Nero saw his big elephant friend again.

Soon the circus caravan was traveling along the road in the darkness. And yet it was not dark all the time, for, every now and then, there came a flash of lightning. The thunder rumbled, too, like the distant roaring of a band of lions.

"The storm will soon be here," said the striped tiger, as he crouched down in one corner of his cage, which, like that of Nero, was being hauled along the road by eight horses.

"Well, we'll feel better when it rains," said the lion.

And then, all at once, the wind began to blow, there came a brighter flash of lightning, a loud clap of thunder, and the storm broke. Down came the rain, in "buckets full," as is sometimes said, and the horses, camels and elephants loved to feel the warm water splashing down on their backs, cooling them off and washing away the dust and dirt.

Some of the rain even dashed into the cages of Nero and the tiger, and the jungle cats liked the feel of it as much as did the other circus beasts.

But the rain did something else, too. It made the roads very soft and slippery with mud, and in the middle of the night, when Nero's cage was being pulled up a steep hill, something broke on the wagon. It got away from the horses and began to roll down the hill backward.

"Look out! Look out!" cried the driver, as he tried to put on the brake. "The lion's cage is running away downhill! Look out, everybody! Look out behind there, Bill on the tiger's cage! Look out!"

But the lion's cage did not crash into the tiger's cage, which was the next wagon behind. Instead, Nero's house on wheels rolled to one side of the road and toppled over into a ditch. There was a loud crash as the wooden sides and top cracked and broke.

All at once Nero saw the door of his broken cage swing open. He could walk right out, and, as soon as he got steady on his feet, after being tossed about by the fall, the lion gave a leap and found himself standing clear of his cage in the soft mud, with the rain beating down all about him.

"Why—why, I'm loose!" roared Nero. "I'm out of my cage for the first time since I was caught in the jungle! Oh, and this is like the jungle, a little. I can feel the soft mud on my paws, and the rain on my back!"

Nero opened his mouth to roar, and the rain dashed in, cooling his tongue. As the lightning flashed he could see his broken cage at one side of the ditch, but he was clear of it. When the thunder roared Nero roared back in answer.

Up above him Nero could hear the circus men shouting. What they were saying he did not know, but they were telling one another that the lion's cage had rolled downhill, had broken, and that the lion was loose.

Nero looked around him. He could see quite well in the dark. Off to one side he saw some tangled bushes and a clump of trees.

"Maybe that is the jungle!" thought Nero. "I'm going to find out. I'm going to leave the circus for a while. It was very nice, but I want to be free. I want to feel the rain and the mud. Now that I am out of my cage I'll stay loose for a time!"

And so Nero ran away!



CHAPTER XI

NERO AND BLACKIE

The first thing any wild animal does when it runs away is to find some dark place and hide. Even though it may be hungry, an animal, when frightened, will nearly always hide until it can look about and make up its mind what to do.

Nero, the circus lion, who got loose from his cage when it rolled downhill in the storm and broke open, did this thing. When he had stood for a moment in the rain and darkness, feeling the soft mud squdge up between his claws, and when he had roared a bit, because he felt so wild and free, Nero sneaked off in the darkness toward some trees and bushes, which he had seen in a flash of lightning.

"That may be the jungle," he had said to himself.

But of course you and I know that it wasn't the jungle. That was far, far away—across the sea in Africa.

He stood for a moment, listening to the shouts of the circus men, who were standing about the broken cage. They could not see Nero in the darkness, nor even when the lightning flashed, for the lion crouched down behind some black bushes.

"Well, Nero got away all right," said one circus man.

"Yes, and we must get him back!" said the man who had trained Nero to do his tricks. "Folks don't like lions wandering about their farms and gardens. I must find my pet. Here, Nero! Nero! Come back!" called the trainer.

But though the lion liked the man who had been so kind to him, Nero was not yet ready to go back to the circus.

"I have just gotten out of my cage," said Nero to himself; "and it would be too bad to go back before I have had some fun. So I'll just run on and stay in the jungle awhile."

Nero felt very happy. It was a long time since he had been able to roam about as he pleased, and though he had no raincoat or umbrella, and not even rubbers, he didn't mind the storm at all. Animals like to get wet, sometimes, if the rain is not too cold. It gives them a bath, just as you have yours in a tub.

"This certainly is fun!" said Nero to himself, as he trotted along through the rain and darkness toward the trees. "I'll find a good place to hide in and stay there all night."

It did not take Nero long to find a hiding place. It was a sort of cave down in between two big rocks in the woods; and it was almost as good as the cave in which he had lived in the jungle with his father and mother and Chet and Boo.

"I wish my brother and sister were here now," thought Nero to himself, as he snuggled down on a bed of dry leaves between the rocks. The leaves were dry because one rock stretched over them, like a roof. "And if Switchie were here he and I could have some fun to-morrow, going about this new jungle," thought the lion boy.

But Switchie, the lion cub with whom Nero used to play, was far off in Africa, so our circus friend had to stay by himself. He curled up on the leaves, listened to the swish and patter of the rain, and soon he fell asleep.

Now while Nero was hiding thus in the cave he had found, the circus men were anxious to find the lion. They got ropes and lanterns, and had a new, empty cage made ready, so that, in case Nero were found, he could be given a new home. Then, while Nero's trainer and some men to help him hunt for the lion stayed behind, the rest of the circus went on to where it was to give a show the next day. No matter what happens, the circus must go on, if there is any of it left to travel. Accidents often happened like this one—cages getting stuck in the mud and animals sometimes getting away.

But I'm not going to tell you, just now, about the circus men who stayed behind to hunt Nero. They did not find the lion very easily. This story is mostly about Nero, so we shall now see what happened to him.

All night long Nero slept in the cave. It lightened and thundered, but he did not mind that. Nor did he mind the rain, for though he had been wet, he liked it, and in the cave under the rock no more water could splash on him.

When Nero awoke the sun was shining through the leaves and branches of the trees and down in through the tangle of bushes in front of the cave where Nero had hidden. The lion rolled over, stretched out his heavy paws with their big, curved claws, and opened his mouth and yawned, just as you have often seen your dog or cat yawn after a sleep.

"Well," said Nero to himself, "I guess I'll look around this jungle and see if I can find any breakfast. I'm hungry, and that nice trainer man isn't here to give me anything to eat. I'll have to hunt for it myself, as I used to do when I was at home. We'll see what kind of jungle this is."

Nero soon found that it was quite different from the jungle in Africa. The trees were not so big, nor were there so many of them, and the vines and bushes were not so tangled. It was not quite so hot, either, though this was the middle of summer, and there were not as many birds as Nero was used to seeing in his home jungle. Nor were there any monkeys swinging by their tails from the trees. It was quite a different jungle altogether, but Nero liked it better than his circus cage.

"Now for something to eat!" said Nero, when he had finished stretching. He stepped from the little cave out into the bright sunshine, and looked around. He wanted to make sure there were no men near by who might catch him and take him back to that queer house on wheels, with iron bars all around it. Nero saw nothing to make him go back into his cave.

Up in the trees the robins and the sparrows sang and chirped, but if they saw the tawny, yellow lion moving about, like a big cat, they paid no attention. They did not seem to mind Nero at all.

And, pretty soon, Nero found something to eat in the woods. He had not forgotten how to hunt, as he had done in the jungle, though it was rather a long time ago.

Then Nero sniffed and sniffed until he found a spring of water, at which he took a good drink.

"Well, now that I have had something to eat and something to drink I feel much better," said Nero to himself. "I must have some fun."

So he looked about, wondering what he would do. It was a sort of vacation for him, you see, as he did not have to do any of his circus tricks.

"Let's see, now," thought Nero. "I wonder—"

And then, all of a sudden, the lion heard a rustling noise over in the bushes at one side. He gave a jump, just as your cat does when something startles her. Nero wanted to be on the watch for any one who might be trying to catch him or trap him.

Then Nero saw a small black animal walk slowly out from under a big bush. The animal was something like a little tiger, except that she was plain black instead of being striped yellow and black. At first Nero was much surprised.

"Hello, there!" called the lion, in animal talk, which is the same all over the world. "Hello there! Who are you and where are you going?"

"Oh, I'm Blackie, a cat," was the answer. "Once I was a lost cat, but I'm not that way any longer. Who are you, if I may ask?"



CHAPTER XII

NERO AND THE TRAMP

Nero, the circus lion, gave himself a big shake. His mane, or big fringe of hair around his neck, stood out like the fur on your cat's back when a dog chases her, and then Nero roared. Oh, such a loud roar as he gave! The ground shook.

"There! Now do you know who I am?" asked Nero.

Blackie, the cat who was once lost, seemed quite surprised at the way Nero acted. She looked at the lion and said:

"Well, I'm sure I don't know why in the world you are making so much noise. I just asked what your name was, and there you go acting as though you were a part of a thunderstorm. What's it all about, anyhow?"

"I was just telling you my name," said Nero, a little ashamed of himself for having made such a racket. "I'm a circus lion. At least I used to be in a circus, but I ran away last night, when my cage rolled downhill and broke."

"Oh, a circus lion!" mewed Blackie. "Why, I know some folks in a circus. There was Dido, a dancing bear, and—"

"Why, I know him too!" roared Nero, in delight. "He's in the same circus I came from!"

"You don't tell me!" exclaimed Blackie. "And then I knew Tum Tum, a jolly elephant, and—"

"Well, say now, isn't that queer?" laughed Nero—at least he laughed as much as a lion ever laughs. "Why, Tum Tum is in my circus, too! We are great friends. And once a dog named Don came to the show, but he did not stay very long."

"Oh, I know Don, too," said Blackie. "Once he ran away, and once he chased me. But that was before we were friends. Say, Nero, I feel as if I had known you a long time, since we know so many of the same friends. Tell me, have you ever been in a book?"

"There it goes again!" cried Nero. "Book! Book! Book! Tum Tum is in one, and so is Don, and Dido. I suppose, next, you'll be telling me that you have had a book written about you."

"Yes," said Blackie, rather slowly, as she waved her tail to and fro, "a man wrote a book about me. It tells how I got lost, how I was in a basket, and how I came home to find the family all away. And maybe I wasn't glad when they came back! But were you ever in a book?"

"No," answered the circus lion, "and I never expect to be."

But that only goes to show that Nero didn't know anything about it. For he is in a book, isn't he?

"Where do you live?" asked Nero of Blackie. "Is it in a circus?"

"Gracious sakes alive, no!" exclaimed Blackie. "I wouldn't know what to do in a circus. I live in that house over there with a little boy and girl who are very kind to me. Wouldn't you like to come over and see them?"

"Thank you, no. Not just now," Nero answered. "I'm not much used to being around houses, though I like boys and girls, for I see many of them in the circus, and they like to watch me do my tricks. But I have just run away, and I want to go about by myself a bit more. The men from the circus may try to catch me, you know."

"Don't you want them to?" asked Blackie.

"Well, not right away," answered the lion. "I want to have some fun by myself first."

"Well, I must be going," said Blackie after a bit, when she had talked a little further with Nero. "If ever you're around my house, stop in and see me. It's right over there, across the hill," and she pointed to it with her paw.

"I will, thank you," said Nero, switching his tail from side to side. Then Blackie said goodbye to him, and the cat walked on through the woods, back toward the house where she lived.

For two or three days Nero wandered about in the woods, and, all this while, the circus men were hunting everywhere for him. But they could not find him, for the lion kept well hidden in the woods. And of course, though Blackie knew he was there, she could not speak man-talk to tell about him. So Nero remained free and had a good time.

But one day the circus lion felt lonesome. He had met none of his friends in the woods, and had not seen Blackie again, though he had looked for her. Nero did meet a little animal who seemed quite friendly. This was Slicko, the jumping squirrel, and Slicko had a nice talk with the lion.

"I know what I'll do," said Nero to himself one day. "I'll go over to that house where Blackie lives and see her."

So Nero started over the hill to go to the house that Blackie had pointed out as the one in which she lived. And a very strange thing happened to the circus lion there.

As it happened, when Nero slunk out of the woods, which were near Blackie's house, no one saw him. In fact none of the family was at home, having gone visiting for the day. Blackie wasn't at home, either, having gone down in the cow pasture to hunt grasshoppers, so there was no one in the house. But Nero did not know that. He went sniffing and snuffing around, thinking perhaps he could find something to eat, but nothing had been left out for lions, as Blackie's folks did not know one was roaming about so near them.

Nero walked softly up to the kitchen door of the house. The door was partly open, and this was strange, if the lion had only known it, for folks don't usually go away and leave doors open behind them. And from the open door came the smell of something good. It was the smell of meat, and, in fact, was a boiled ham, which Blackie's mistress had left in a pot on the stove.

Now the reason the door of the farmhouse was open was because it had been broken open by a tramp! This tramp, coming to the house to ask for something to eat and seeing that no one was at home, had broken open the door. He was going to get something to eat, and then take whatever else he wanted. And that's why the door was open when Nero walked up to it. The tramp was in the kitchen, cutting himself some pieces from the cold, boiled ham.

"My, that smells good!" thought Nero, as he sniffed the meat. "I guess I'll go in and see if I can't get some."

So Nero, not, of course, knowing anything about the tramp, but wanting only to get some meat and, perhaps, see his friend Blackie, pushed the kitchen door open with his nose and walked in.

And then, all of a sudden, that bad, ragged tramp, who had come in to steal, looked up from the table where he was sitting, eating ham, and saw the lion.

"Oh, my! Oh, my goodness me!" cried the tramp, and he was so surprised and frightened that he just slumped down in his chair and didn't dare move. The piece of meat he had been eating dropped from his hand to the floor, and Nero picked it up and ate it, licking his jaws for more.

"Oh, this is terrible!" gasped the tramp. "I didn't know this farmer kept a trained lion as a watchdog. I knew he had a black cat, but not a lion. Oh, what am I to do?"

Of course Nero didn't in the least know what the man was talking about. But the lion smelled the meat and he wanted some more; so he sat down in front of the kitchen door and looked at the ragged man.

"I don't know who you are," said Nero to himself, "and you are certainly not as nice as my circus trainer.

"But you have some more meat there," Nero thought on, for he could still smell the ham on the table. "I think you might give me a bit more. That little piece was hardly enough."

And so Nero sat there looking at the tramp, who was too frightened to move. He couldn't get out of the door, because the lion was in the way, and he didn't dare turn his back, to go over to open a window and jump out, for fear the lion would spring on him.

"Oh, I'm in a terrible fix!" thought the tramp. "This is the first time I was ever caught by a lion! It's worse than half a dozen dogs! Oh, what shall I do?"

There really did not seem to be anything for him to do except just sit there. And Nero sat looking at him, waiting to be fed some more meat, as he had been used to being fed in the circus.

And then something else happened. Back to the house came the farmer and his wife, and their little girl was with them. They had returned from their visit.

"Why, look, Mother!" cried the little girl, as she went up on the back porch. "The kitchen door is open!"

"It is?" cried her mother. "I'm sure we locked it when we went away."

"We did," said the farmer, who was the little girl's father. "Some one must have gone in—a tramp, maybe. I'll see about this!"

The farmer walked quickly to the kitchen door and opened it wide. It had swung partly shut after Nero had gone in. And when the farmer saw the frightened tramp sitting in the chair at the table, too scared to move, and the lion between him and the door, on guard, it seemed, the farmer was so surprised and frightened himself that he cried:

"Oh my! There's a lion in our kitchen, and a tramp! Oh, I must get my gun! I must send for the constable!"

"The constable won't be any good for a lion," said the farmer's wife.

"No, but my gun can shoot the lion," said the farmer. "I'll go for it."

"Oh, let me see the lion!" begged the little girl. "I saw one in the circus the other day, and he was tame. Maybe this is the same one. The circus lion I saw wouldn't bite any one, even when the man put his head in the big mouth. Let me look!"

She pushed past her father and mother, and looked in the kitchen. The little girl saw the frightened tramp, who had been caught by the lion, and the little girl also saw Nero. And then she laughed and shouted:

"Why, that's the very same nice, tame lion I saw in the circus! I'm sure it's the very same one, for it looks just like him. But I can soon tell."

"Gracious goodness, child!" cried her mother. "Don't dare go near him! Besides, it may not be a tame, circus lion."

"Well, if he is he can do tricks," said the little girl. "The lion I saw in the circus sat up on a stool when the trainer told him to. We haven't any stool big enough, but maybe I can make the lion sit on his hind legs on the table. That will hold him."

And then the little girl, doing just as she had seen the trainer do in the circus, held up her hand, pointed at the lion in the kitchen, and then at the table, and cried:

"Up, Nero! Up! Sit on the table!"

And though Nero did not know the little girl, and did not remember having seen her before, the trained lion knew what the words meant. He had heard his trainer say them many, many times. So Nero slowly walked over to the table, got up on it with a jump, and then and there, right in front of the tramp and the little girl and her father and mother, Nero sat on his hind legs on the table, just as he was accustomed to sit on a stool in the circus ring.

"There! What did I tell you?" cried the little girl, clapping her hands. "I knew he was the tame, circus lion! Doesn't he sit up nice?"

"Yes," said the farmer, "he does. But there is no telling how long he may sit there. He must have escaped from the circus, and I had better telephone the men that he is here. They'll be glad to get him back."

"It's a good thing he scared the tramp," said the farmer's wife, as she looked at the ragged man. "What are you doing here, anyhow?" she asked him.

"I—I just came in to get something to eat," he whined. "And then your lion wouldn't let me go."

"He isn't my lion," replied the farmer. "But he's done me a good turn. I'll have the constable come here and take you away."

And a little later the constable, who had been telephoned for, came and took the tramp to jail. Nero looked on, wondering what it was all about, and wishing some one would give him something to eat. And the little girl thought of this.

"The tramp has spoiled the ham for us, Mother," she said. "Can't I give the rest of it to Nero?"



"Oh, yes, I suppose so," said the farmer's wife.

So Nero got something to eat after all. And then, when he had fallen asleep in the woodshed where the farmer locked him, the circus men came to take the tame lion back with them.

"I'm very glad to get Nero again," said his trainer. "I guess he has had enough of running away."

And as they were bringing up the new cage which was to take the lion back to the circus, in came Blackie from the meadow where she had been catching grasshoppers.

"Oh, so you did come to see me, after all!" she mewed to Nero.

"Yes," answered the lion, in animal talk, which none of the people could understand, "I came to see you."

"I'm sorry I was away," said Blackie.

"So am I. But I really had a pretty good time," said Nero. "And I scared a man who wore very ragged clothes, something like the funny clowns in our circus. And now I am going back there. I'm glad to have met you, Blackie."

"And I'm glad I met you, Nero. Maybe someday I'll come to your circus."

"Yes, do," growled Nero.

"Good-bye!" called the little girl to the circus lion, as he was hauled away in his cage. "Good-bye! I'm glad you did the sitting-up trick for me!"

Late that afternoon Nero was back in the circus tent again.

"Well, where in the world have you been?" asked Tum Tum.

"Oh, off having adventures, as I suppose you'd call them," answered the lion.

"Adventures!" exclaimed the jolly elephant. "Well, if that man hears about them he'll put you in a book."

"Oh, I guess not," said Nero, as he curled up in his new cage.

But I did, just the same, and here's the book. And so we come to the end of Nero's many adventures—at least for a time. But there are other animals to tell about.

In the circus was a striped tiger, of whom I have spoken. I think I will tell you about him. And so the next volume in this series will be called: "Tamba, the Tame Tiger: His Many Adventures."

And now we will leave Nero peacefully sleeping in his cage, and dreaming, perhaps, of the little girl and Blackie and of the tramp with the boiled ham.

THE END



STORIES FOR CHILDREN (From four to nine years old)

THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES BY RICHARD BARNUM



In all nursery literature animals have played a conspicuous part; and the reason is obvious for nothing entertains a child more than the antics of an animal. These stories abound in amusing incidents such as children adore and the characters are so full of life, so appealing to a child's imagination, that none will be satisfied until they have met all of their favorites—Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, Tum Tum, etc.

1 SQUINTY, THE COMICAL PIG.

2 SLICKO, THE JUMPING SQUIRREL.

3 MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY.

4 TUM TUM, THE JOLLY ELEPHANT.

5 DON, A RUNAWAY DOG.

6 DIDO, THE DANCING BEAR.

7 BLACKIE, A LOST CAT.

8 FLOP EAR, THE FUNNY RABBIT.

9 TINKLE, THE TRICK PONY.

10 LIGHTFOOT, THE LEAPING GOAT.

11 CHUNKY, THE HAPPY HIPPO.

12 SHARP EYES, THE SILVER FOX.

13 NERO, THE CIRCUS LION.

14 TAMBA, THE TAME TIGER.

Cloth, Large 12mo, Illustrated, Per vol. 60 cents

For sale at all bookstores or sent (postage paid) on receipt of price by the publishers.

* * * * *

BARSE & HOPKINS Publishers 28 West 23rd Street New York

THE END