Nero, the Circus Lion: His Many Adventures

ich one of them had shot while the hunter was hidden on the platform in a tree. But Nero, cowering away ba

! I'm all right so far; but I wonder how long I will

hink, for a jungle lion to be this way as it would be for your dog. Bu

ht Nero, "until it's safe to come ou

her lion once must have used the same cave for a sleeping place,

sh my father and mother and Chet and Boo were here with me. Yes

it was as dark as night in the cavern, no matter whether or not the sun shone outside, and Nero

cave, he felt such a pain that he let out a howl and then a roar

e yet, outside, and may hear me," thou

bullet that had gone in from the hunter's gun. Nero could

"I could not run very fast through the jungle, and if the hun

lder lions had even been shot at, and one or two of them had scars on them, to show where the bullets had gone in. But the shot places had healed. And among t

to them?" Ner

ld Bounder, a toothless lion who could chew only soft scraps o

the jungle cave. What had happened to him was exactly like

ather or Switchie comes to find me they will know w

s all animals are after a meal and a sleep, and, besides, he was

t or the pump and get a drink. Lions in the jungle can't get water whenever they want it, and the only w

f a spring. He walked in the direction from which the smell came, and soon he heard the trickle of water. And, a little later, he came to a small spring in the far end

limp around in the cavern and get drinks of water. He dared not go outside. And in these two days he beca

jungle, and it was nice and warm. Nero looked this way and that for a sign of a hunter,

aid Nero to himself. "I must try and see how

one on the night of the big hunt when he had been hurt, Nero began to cree

the cave for a while. I can get along better than at first, and the hunters do not seem to

to go very slowly. For his paw, though it was getting better, was not well yet, and sometimes, when he knocked it against a stone or a tree, it pained him so that he wo

ay they had slunk along. Then, too, Nero expected his father would be with him to show him the way back. But something had happened, as you know, to make everything differe

t the lion boy. "I must try as hard as I can to find my cave. And

pool or a spring, and when he was hungry he hunted small animals, that he could

im," thought Nero. "But when I get well, and bigger and str

ng. Here and there wandered the boy lion, always hoping that he might find some animal path that w

to know what

lost my way. I must ask some of t

gh he was not yet full grown, and when he roared at them, to ask where his cave

nd who were not afraid of one lion who was all alone, did not both

of the monkeys he saw hopping about in the trees.

sit in the trees and eat coconuts when we can get them. We ne

wandered on, eating when he could, and dr

other lions one of them wou

have any lions in it except himself. By this time his paw was

ven away a lot of monkeys who were taking up the water in their paws and sipping it, all

, as he got up from the dust, where

the color of an elephant, but not half as large. And on the end of his nose, or sno

away from the spring,

er. "Don't you know better

you?" a

popotamus can, too, as a hippo, which is his short name, is a friend of mine. But, as they live in the water nearly all the time, they do

inoceros for having knocked him away from the water. That was

an away and joined a circus, I b

cus?" Nero wa

ank a lot of water. Then, when he went away, it was Nero's turn. And after the lion had quenched h

way home," thought poor Nero, as h

ll a lion cub. And he was very lonesome and homesick, because he could not

l at once, he smelled something good. It was meat-just what he wanted-and, looking along a

, and then, his paw being well again, he g

nd down he went, into a big hole, and the meat and the pile of leaves went with him.

n the trap! The li

nt