Nero, the Circus Lion: His Many Adventures

g in a "trap," for though Nero could understand lion talk, he did not yet know much about the talk of men. Later on he was to learn a little about that. Just now he wa

umbled and twisted about on the bottom of the pit, which was p

mother, Nero had fallen into a mud puddle or other hole, because he had not yet learned to walk steadil

too deep, and the sides were too straight. Nero tried hard enough, jumping up and clawing at the dirt

an was jumping about, waving his hands, in one of which

! I have a lion in my

this meant. All he knew was that a ma

he has caught me because I ran away from him and hid in the cave.

and he had dug a deep hole along a jungle path where he knew lions and other animals would walk. Then he covere

t on the ground, and jumped straight for it. But he landed i

o be loose, to roam through the jungle as he liked. He wanted to try to

d the other lions thought he had been killed by the hunters. They never saw him again, and, for a time, felt very sad. But so many things happened in the jungle that Mr. and Mrs. Lion soon forgot Nero. That's th

p at the top was the black African trapper looking down on him. Pretty soon

an to the trapper who had been so pleased when Ne

man who comes from across the sea in a big boa

white animal man do

sell to a circus

ircus?" asked th

eople like to pay money to look at wild animals such as we have in our ju

money to look at wild animals? Well, they should come to the

only very few of us can go to jungl

ight have remembered that word "circus." The rhinoceros, who had knocked him away from the drinking pool, had spoken of a "cir

ppy, sad time that I am not going to tell you very much about this part of

op of the pit and put into a big wooden cage. He tried to get out, by striking the bars with his paws, and biting them with his teeth, but they were too strong. Then he lay down in a cor

take some of the meat they thrust through the bars of the cage to him. And when he had eaten and taken some water, Nero felt better. But he was still cross and unhappy

h the jungle. They wouldn't trust Nero to walk by himself. What had happened was that the white animal man, who bought wild animals for his circus, had come along,

away down in a deep, black hole, deeper and blacker than the j

ther times he seemed to roll over and over in a regular somersault. And these somersaults weren't at all like the on

o, in his cage in the ship. "I wish I could go bac

was in a big storm, and was being tossed up and down on great ocean

adful time. More than once he wished himself

rd, and was now tied up at a dock in New York. Then Nero felt himself being hoisted up in his cage, and

oler, and Nero had been used to being very hot nearl

uck with some boxes and barrels. Nero was the only wild animal, and people passing along on the dock stoppe

lked, but of course a lion can't go about loose in the streets of New York, though they d

s of his cage as he was carted

the tangled vines and the snakes and monkeys and other animals? All I s

big city. There are not many pla

place called Bridgeport, Connecticut, where some circus men keep their wild animals, to train the

rain started off. "I don't know that I like it, but still it

l

through the ba

ge

large

thing about railroads, nor where he was being taken. But, after a while, during whic

ro suddenly saw one end of his cage open. The wooden bars, which had b

I can get loose

lf in very much the same sort of place. But this new ca

es. He sniffed, and he smelled the smell of many wild animal

over to one side were some elephants. At first Nero could not

slowly to and fro, as elephants always sway, and they wer

ngle?" asked Nero aloud,

t!" cried a big jolly-looking el

is it?" a

circus, and we are glad to have you with us,

is a circus!" went on the lion. "Well

nt